Strange
by storm-petrel
Summary: A Marauder era fic with a twist. Peter Pettigrew doesn't exist, instead Lily Evans is the fourth Marauder. This fic documents their sixth and seventh years. Essentially a LE/JP story. Rated T for language.DISCONTINUED
1. Introduction and character profiles

Introduction and character profiles:

This is a Marauder fic set in a modern day Hogwarts. Imagine that Lily and James' era was thirty odd years later than it was. Other than the date, and some more modern clothing/inventions/sayings etc. it's exactly the same as it was. Now that I have thoroughly confused you, here's the summary:

Summary: the story starts in their sixth year. Peter Pettigrew doesn't exist; instead Lily Evans is the fourth Marauder. She and James have been inseparable best friends since they were born; they lived next door to each other for 11 years until, when they were both about to start Hogwarts, James' parents inherited a mansion in Norfolk, leaving Lily alone in London. They missed each other furiously, having never been apart for more than a week in their lives, until they started Hogwarts and formed the Marauders with Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. Sirius hates his family with a passion, and in their fourth year he moved in with the Potters after a blazing row, and he never looked back. Remus is a werewolf. His friends worked it out within a year and despite him expecting them to hate him they did the opposite, becoming illegal Animagi to help him through his transformations. Lily is a large, reddish brown wolf, nicknamed Ulf; James a stag, nicknamed Prongs and Sirius a huge black dog called Padfoot. Lily spends nearly every holiday at James' mansion with the rest of the Marauders, apart from the Easter holidays which she either spends at Hogwarts or with her family. During these holidays James visits nearly every day, and Sirius and Remus nearly as often. Lily and James spend all their time together and have the most amazing friendship; practically lost without each other. However James likes Lily as more than just a friend, but he won't say anything out of fear of ruining their friendship. Lily starts to like James halfway through their sixth year, but doesn't believe James' feelings towards her are sincere, and likewise refuses to risk their friendship.

Lily also has two close female friends, although neither are as close as the Marauders. Mattie Wilmot and Maya Baines are also friends with the Marauders, not close friends but still friends.

This story documents their sixth and seventh years, including Voldemort, Death Eaters and fun :-) enjoy...

Name: Lily Evans

Nickname: Ulf

D.O.B: 31.01.92

Family: Muggleborn, older sister named Petunia.

Looks: elbow length red hair, completely untameable curls. Emerald green eyes that always have a mischievous sparkle in them. Dusting of freckles on her nose. Fairly short, 5"5', slim

Hobbies: playing guitar, singing, Quidditch, running, being outside in the rain, and being a Marauder, playing tricks on her friends and Slytherins.

Favourite music: Muggle music; indie, alternative and classic rock

Quidditch position: Chaser

Favourite subjects: Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Potions

Animagus: wolf

Name: James Potter

Nickname: Prongs

D.O.B 18.10.91

Family: from a Pureblood family, no siblings

Looks: untameable shaggy black hair, hazel eyes, muscled from Quidditch, wire-rimmed glasses.

Hobbies: Quidditch, flying, listening to Lily play guitar, being with his friends, being a Marauder, being outside in the rain and at night, playing tricks on his friends and Slytherins

Favourite music: Wizard rock bands and whatever Lily plays

Quidditch position: Chaser

Favourite subjects: Transfiguration, Defence Against the Dark Arts

Animagus: Stag

Name: Sirius Black

Nickname: Padfoot

D.O.B: 24.5.92

Family: Pureblood family, lives with the Potters.

Looks: chin length black curly hair, grey eyes, well-built, muscled.

Hobbies: Quidditch, girlfriends, same as the above

Favourite Music: Lily's Muggle music, wizard rock

Quidditch Position: Beater

Favourite subjects: D.A.D.A

Animagus: Big black dog

Name: Remus Lupin

Nickname: Moony

D.O.B: 7.11.91

Family: Half-blood, father dead

Looks: tall, sandy hair, blue eyes, thin but good-looking

Hobbies: reading, playing tricks, being with his friends

Favourite Music: wizard rock

Quidditch position: N/A

Animagus: N/A (werewolf)


	2. Chapter 1: The Beach

_**This is my first proper fic, so bear with me and feel free to criticize :-)**_

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chapter 1: The Beach

"Children! Its lunchtime!" a rather frazzled looking woman with black hair pulled back into a messy bun and a flour covered apron over her clothes poked her head out of the garden door. When there came no reply she sighed, pulled out her wand and shot a silvery fox into the air. She spoke to it firmly. "Go and find the kids and tell them that lunch is ready and if they want any they better come and get it." it sprinted off across the grass, disappearing behind a hedge. Sue Potter drew her head back into the kitchen and started fill a basket with food.

"I wonder what it's like to be a tree..." Mused an upside-down Lily. She was hanging from a branch in the summer sunshine, swinging lazily. "Probably rather boring." observed James from his position lying on his stomach at the foot of Lily's tree. "Yeah..." put in Sirius, flat on his back gazing up at the vivid blue sky. "You'd just stand there all day and all night, for ever! Imagine that!" Lily made a noise of dissent. "It would be really peaceful... apart from the whole being climbed on bit..." Sirius opened his mouth to argue but was distracted by Remus looking up from his book and pointing at something running across the grass. "Looks like lunch is ready." he observed as the thing came into focus. The silvery fox skidded to a halt and spoke in Mrs Potter's voice. "Lunch is ready, and if you want any you'd better go and get it." it said before vanishing. "Brilliant, food!" shouted Sirius and leapt to his feet, sprinting across the massive garden, back to the enormous house just visible in the distance. Remus too got to his feet as Lily flipped down from the tree, landing next to James. She grabbed his arm and hauled him up. "Come on Prongs, food!" he allowed her to pull him to his feet and then cried, "Race you!" he took off, an indignant Lily hot on his heels. "No fair!" she yelled. "I wasn't ready!" they passed Remus who looked thoroughly resigned to this, and rapidly caught up with Sirius who had stopped to wait for them. As they sped past he cottoned on, and gave chase, never one to turn down a race. Lily was just about ahead of James when Sirius came hurtling past, shouting a fierce war cry as he rounded a hedge and sprinted across the lawn, dodging gnomes and flowerbeds. Lily was gaining on him, neck and neck with James, and she just about overtook them as they threw themselves though the door and into the kitchen. "Noooo! She beat me!" Sirius wailed as a very smug looking Lily sat on the table, getting her breath back. Mrs Potter sighed, used to their antics and Remus entered the kitchen at a much slower pace, book under his arm. He smiled at Mrs Potter, who smiled back, before turning to the others and saying, loudly over the noise of their bickering, "I've packed you a hamper if you want to go to the beach. I know its too hot to do anything much." Lily and James grinned as Sirius started bouncing around like a two year old at the prospect of a picnic on the beach before throwing himself at Mrs Potter and hugging her, then continuing to dance. "Thanks Mum!" cried James, and Lily and Remus echoed it before they all ran upstairs to get changed.

The three of them who weren't Potters had their own rooms because they stayed there so often, and they were all on the top floor, which they had to themselves. Mr and Mrs Potter had rooms on the second floor (the third was for guests). To get to the top floor you had to say the password to a tapestry of a woodland glade filled with fairies, and it would move away to reveal a narrow spiral staircase which led to a long corridor with four doors opening off it. The two on the left were for Lily and James and the two on the right for Sirius and Remus. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, the rooms on the same side of the corridor shared a bathroom which had two doors, one opening into each bedroom. This was unfortunate for Remus because Sirius always took a notoriously long time in the shower, so he generally used Lily and James' bathroom instead. In all four rooms was a trapdoor in the ceiling and a wooden ladder which led to the attic. Furnished with old or unwanted furniture, with colourful rugs on the floor and cheerful paintings on the walls, this was the Marauders' playroom. There were toys of all shapes and sizes from when they were young, and squashy armchairs and sofas. This was their base, where they amused themselves when they couldn't go out, or planned tricks and jokes, or simply relaxed. The attic also had a trapdoor in the ceiling which led onto the roof. This was where they went if they could not sleep, or wanted fresh air. It was a large, flat space with the floor magically covered in grass and a wrought iron spiral staircase leading to the ground outside. Anyway, back to the story...

The four of them shoved each other out of the way in their attempts to be the first up the stairs. Sirius shoved Lily and James to the floor as he yelled the password at the tapestry but both of them grabbed one of his legs each, bringing him toppling down on top of them, and leaving Remus free to step daintily over the tussling heap and ascend the stairs.

Ten minutes later they were all successfully upstairs, though considerably more dusty than before. They ran to their respective rooms, flung on their swimming costumes under their clothes and charged back to the kitchen where Remus was already waiting, smiling smugly. Sirius stuck his tongue out at him as he went to open the basket, only to have his hand slapped away by Mrs Potter. "That's for the beach Siri. If you're hungry have one of these." she pressed a freshly baked muffin into his hand, and was immediately surrounded by three more children, innocently holding out their hands. She chuckled and gave them all one before telling them to "Scoot!", but not before Sirius managed to nick another cake. They ran out of the front door and grabbed their brooms, levitating the food with them. Luckily this area of Norfolk was entirely inhabited by witches and wizards so they didn't need to worry about being seen by Muggles.

Bending low over her broomstick Lily zoomed into the lead but was suddenly brought to a halt when Sirius grabbed her broom from behind and dragged her back. She yelped and lunged at him, grabbing his broom with her hands as she slid off hers, which Remus grabbed to avoid it being lost. "Lily!" James shouted and leapt for Sirius' broom too so that he was hanging off the back, while Sirius and Lily struggled, her attempting to get on his broom and him attempting too chuck her off. With a sigh Remus grabbed James' broom too. "You're such a poo Siri!" Lily shrieked, grabbing his leg and yanking on it, resulting in him overbalancing so that all three of them were hanging off the broomstick. "At least I'm not fat!" he yelled back, trying, and failing, to heave himself onto the stick. She snorted. "You're fatter! And a man-whore!" meanwhile James had managed to scramble onto the back of the broom, and now sat, grinning smugly. A grin that was promptly wiped from his face as Remus swooped by and shoved him, resulting in him toppling backwards with a cry, ending up holding onto Sirius' leg to stop himself from falling. Sirius yelped at the extra weight, kicking his legs which meant James had to grab one of Lily's legs as well. "I'm not a man-whore! I'll have you know I'm still a virgin!" Lily howled with laughter. "Sure about that Padfoot?!" choked out James in between sniggers. Sirius looked affronted at their disbelief. "What about that time you forgot to put up the silencing charm around your bed, and we had to spend the night in Lily's dorm, eh?" shouted Remus. Sirius sighed. "Fine! I'm not really a virgin! But neither are you!" Remus coughed. "Actually Sirius, I am." there was a yelp as Lily let go of the broom with one hand to whack Sirius upside the head, which meant she couldn't support both hers and James' weight, her hand sliding. She grabbed onto Sirius' legs as she fell so they were a chain of struggling, arguing and hitting Marauders. Remus was laughing too hard to help them, and they were nearing the very crowded beach. "Fine! But James isn't a virgin either!" Sirius countered. "But neither is Lily!" James cried. "Are you calling me a whore?!" shrieked Lily. "Yes!" cried Sirius. "You're one to talk!" shouted James. "You have a new girlfriend every week! Or even less than that!"

"So do you!" howled Sirius. "And at least I've never been dumped! I always do the dumping!"

"What about Tiffany?! She dumped you!"

"Only cos she found me in a broom closet with Stephanie!"

"Exactly!" crowed Lily. "You're a whore!" Sirius pouted. "I'll have you know that I control all of you in our current position! I let go and you all fall!"

"But then so do you!" shouted James.

"But James is too fat and heavy! I can't take his weight!" Lily whined

"I'm not fat! You're fatter!"

The occupants of the beach looked up in amazement at the two yelling wizards and one witch who were fighting for space on one broomstick, and a fourth person floating beside them, watching. The over crowded broomstick was flying rather haphazardly towards the sea, getting ever lower as it flew.

"But Sirius is the fattest!" screeched Lily. "He's fatter than a hippo at a tea party!"

"Am not!"

"Are too! And you smell!"

"Don't!"

"Do!"

"Argh!" this was from James whose bare feet had just touched the sea. "We're going to crash!" shrieked Lily.

"I'm too young to die!" wailed Sirius. "And I don't want to die hungry!"

"I don't want to die at all!" yelled James as they drifted ever lower. "Never?" asked Lily curiously, despite the fact James was now up to his waist in water. "NO! I want to live forever!" unfortunately this caused Lily to burst into song. "You and I are gonna live forever!" (Live Forever by Oasis, good song :D)

James let go of Lily's ankles with a girlish squeal, and plunged into the water, which was deeper than him. "We've lost Prongs!" she wailed, breaking off mid-verse. "I'll miss you Prongsie!"

"Prongs, gone! No more late night jaunts to the kitchen, no more planning pranks for the Slytherins, no more teasing him about his curious infatuations!" Sirius moaned, taking his hands off the broom to wipe an imaginary tear away. Unfortunately this meant both he and Lily plummeted into the sea. They came up spluttering, with an soggy James next to them. Remus was in hysterics, laughing so hard he promptly fell off his broom too, and joined them in the water. Sirius howled with laughter whilst grabbing James around the neck, ruffling his hair madly and crying, "You're alive Prongs! You came back from the dead! I'd never have thought it of you!" however his weight caused James to be dunked under the water. Again. As you can probably imagine this ended up in a full scale water fight involving a great deal of dunking, grabbing people's legs to overbalance them, and half drowning. None of them escaped being dunked several times by an over enthusiastic Sirius, and the fight only ended when Remus yelled, "Lunch!" and they all stopped mid splash to follow his pointing finger. Their hamper was floating out to sea, some 20 feet away from them, along with four waterlogged broomsticks. "Food!" Sirius wailed, and struck out towards it, closely followed by the others. They reached the rather soggy hamper and brooms and swam back to the beach. The various onlookers had gone back to their own business once the fight had ended so when the four dripping Marauders crawled out of the waves no one spared them a glance. No one that is apart from three very skinny, long legged, bikini-ed girls, watching from their sunbeds.

The Marauders wandered up the beach, looking for a suitable place to make their base, Sirius emitting the occasional whimper at the damp state of the food. They eventually found a fairly empty spot by some rocks, and sat down in the sand. The boys stripped off their wet t-shirts, leaving them in their swimming trunks, and Lily divested herself of her t-shirt and small green shorts. She stretched out on a rock in her green, orange, blue and yellow striped bikini. James' eyes wandered up her body for a moment before he tore his gaze away and directed it back to the dilemma of the soggy lunch. Luckily Remus cast a nifty little drying spell and lunch was restored to all its former glory. Sirius dived at the hamper immediately, retiring to a rock with three sandwiches, several muffins and a tub of chocolate ice cream that was enchanted not to melt. Lily sighed at him. "It's a good thing Sue packed enough for us, and then the same amount again for you. How can you not be fat after stuffing your gob all day long?!"

"He IS fat!" interrupted James through a mouthful of ham sandwich. "Am not!" cried Sirius indignantly. Lily prodded his arm. "That's muscle!" he yelled. "Flab!" taunted Lily. "Fatty!" she smirked. "You're fatter!" he shrieked. "Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Not!"

"Are!"

"Not!"

"You're both as fat as each other." interrupted Remus. "Now shut up and eat your lunch."

"Lunch!" Lily yelled, as Sirius attacked his ice cream, looking sulky. She grabbed a heap of sausage rolls, muffins, ice cream, cucumber and lemonade, and promptly dropped it all back into the hamper when she stood up. "Damn." to save time and effort she simply picked up the basket and all its contents and sprinted back to her rock. James and Remus yelled as she giggled manically from her perch, stuffing sausage rolls into her mouth. James leapt to his feet and advanced on her. "I'll give you one chance to give that back." he warned. She clutched the basket tighter and snarled, wolf-like, at him. He moved closer, hands outstretched. "Give me the basket, or else!" he threatened. "Never!" she cried. "Over my dead body!"

"If you insist!" he grinned evilly, lunging for the basket. She dropped it and fled, leaping from rock to rock with James close behind her. Unnoticed by everyone except Remus, Sirius grabbed the hamper and retreated back to his rock, but the werewolf was too warm and comfortable to do anything about it as he stretched out lazily and watched James chase Lily across the rocks. She leapt down from her rock, landing lightly on the sand, and sprinted across the beach. James was gaining on her and suddenly dived at her ankles, bringing her down with his tackle. They both collapsed in the sand, winded. James recovered first and, grabbing her around the waist, slung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and started to jog towards the sea. She screeched and hit his back with her fists, wriggling and kicking but he only held her tighter. "Put me down!" she wailed as James waded into the water. He was waist deep now, and still moving. "James! Let go!" he smirked. "Alright."

"No! Don't let go!" she cried but he dropped her with a splash into the water. Again, a water fight ensued. Eventually Lily ran from the sea, sprinting across the sand and back to her rock, curling up with her ice cream. James flopped down on the sand next to Remus, panting.

Once the food had all been eaten, mostly by Sirius, they raced each other to the sea before heading up to the little shop to buy ice cream. However, while James paid Sirius' eyes were caught by a massive blow up dinghy. His whole face lit up as he nudged James. "Prongs!" he muttered. "Prongs! Look!"

"What?" hissed James as he smiled at the cashier and handed over a few Knuts. They took their ice creams and Sirius prodded James again. "Look at that!" James looked. His jaw hit the floor. "Wow!" he breathed. Lily was already sitting in the boat, looking extremely excited. "Can we get it Prongs? Can we?" she asked, like a child again. "It's probably really expensive." murmured Remus, but the cashier heard him. "Two Galleons to hire it for the day." she smiled. Three faces looked at James; he was the only one with any money. "Please?" Sirius did his puppy eyes. "Oh alright." James sighed, secretly just as excited as the others. He handed over the coins and with Sirius taking one end and Lily the other they heaved it out of the shop and down the sand. They set it to float on the breakers and Remus and Sirius clambered in. Lily and James waded in, pushing the boat over the little waves while Sirius squealed in delight and Remus looked slightly amused. Once Lily and James could no longer reach the bottom and the waves weren't breaking any more they struggled into the boat, almost capsizing it in the process, and everyone picked up a paddle.

They paddled fairly far out to sea, far enough that the people on the shore were mere blotches of colour, with only a few mishaps, mostly because of Sirius' enthusiastic paddling. The sea was clear and extremely deep and as they stopped paddling for a moment to rest Lily looked behind her in the back of the boat and spotted several coils of rope. An idea struck her.

Ten minutes later she was floating in the sea, a rope around her wrist attaching her to the handle of the boat, relishing the feeling of floating in deep water. Sirius tied himself to the boat too and joined her in the water and soon all four of them were swimming around, diving down to watch for fish and generally enjoying themselves.

Once they tired of this they all climbed back into the boat, apart from Lily, and started to paddle as hard as they could whilst she was dragged along behind them. They took it in turns to drag and be dragged, until everyone's arms were aching and they paddled gently back to the shore, using the waves to help them along. Chattering happily they started to drag the boat back to their base, but stopped when the three bikini-ed, skinny girls came up to them. "Hello ladies." Sirius drawled. "Looking good." he waggled his eyebrows at the one with light brown hair and big blue eyes who giggled and replied, "Looking good yourself. I'm Claire,"

"Katie." from the blonde who looked James up and down.

"I'm Dot." the brunette stuck her hand out and Remus shook it. "Nice to meet you Dot. I'm Remus."

"James." Lily sighed as Sirius put his arm round the blonde's waist and they walked off, and Katie advanced on James. Putting her hand on his chest she looked up at him with her big eyes, under long, mascara covered lashes. He glanced at Lily who looked resigned, and motioned for him to go ahead as she continued to drag the boat up the sand. She heard James say something to Katie in a low voice, but was surprised when the weight of the boat suddenly lessened. She looked around to see James holding the back, and furrowed her brow. "Why d'you let her go? Never thought you were one to turn down a pretty girl." she teased. He didn't smile. "You're prettier." he mumbled. She frowned. "Sorry? Didn't catch that." he blushed a little. "I said she isn't my type. Plus the boat is heavy, what kind of gentleman would I be if I didn't help a lady in trouble?" she snorted in a very unladylike manner. "You'll be the one in trouble in a minute." she threatened, but he merely smirked. "Looks like Remus didn't get on with Dot anyway." Lily twisted round to look. Sure enough he was jogging over the sand towards them, a disgruntled Dot turning away, an angry looking boy with his hand possessively on her shoulder. "Not get on with her?" she called as he joined them, grabbing another handle of the boat. He shook his head with a shudder. "She's already got a boyfriend. Dirty slut." Lily suppressed a giggle at his language, but James was less successful. Remus hit him.

They finally arrived back at their base, only to find a smug looking Sirius with messy hair and lipstick on his cheek perched on a rock. "Finished already?" James asked. He nodded. "She-" Lily threw an empty ice cream carton at him. "I don't want to know!" she shouted as Sirius rubbed his head indignantly. "I was only going to say she had to go!" he pouted. They had just sat down again when there was a blood-curdling scream.

_**Sorry for the cliffy guys, but I'm mean like that :-). Luckily the next chapter will be up soon... in the meanwhile, why don't you review and tell me how awful it is?**_


	3. Chapter 2: Attack

**Chapter Two: Attack**

_They had just sat down again when there was a blood-curdling scream..._

They rocketed to their feet, grabbing their wands as they did so and stared around wildly. A cluster of tall, masked figures in long black robes were at the other end of the beach, and coloured jets of light were shooting everywhere. As one the Marauders grabbed their brooms, which had dried out by now, and leapt onto them, flying low and fast towards the mayhem. As they neared they could see that the screaming children were being shepherded off the beach and into the restaurant opposite by lifeguards whilst some people sheltered behind sunbeds, fled to the shop or just cowered, screaming. Only the bare minimum had their wits about them enough to send spells at the attackers. James pointed his wand at his throat while the others sent jinxes and stunners at the figures. "Sonorous!" he cried, and the next words he spoke boomed out over the beach. "We're under attack! Anyone under-age or unwilling to fight go to the restaurant across the road. All those of you who can fight, do so! And someone alert the Ministry!" the Death Eaters, for that's what they were, cackled horribly as his voice returned to normal and his words died away. "You're going to fight, children?"

"Yes!" yelled Lily, shooting a Stunning spell at the one who spoke. "We're going to fight! Just try and stop us!" the Death Eater laughed some more, easily deflecting her curse. "You'll have to do better than that Mudblood!"

"Prongs!" Remus cried anxiously. "We're under-age, we'll get expelled!" Sirius snorted. "For the intellectual, you're pretty dumb sometimes Moony! Firstly, so what if we get expelled? They're bloody Death Eaters, I for one aren't going to let them terrorise innocent people. And secondly, I reckon this counts as an emergency, don't you?" he leapt off his broom and onto the sand. The others followed suit and together they advanced on the attackers. "Guess you're right Padfoot!"

"Course I am! Look out Prongs!" James ducked just as a jet of green light shot over his head. "Guys, pair up!" Lily yelled. "Go back to back!" she and James pressed their backs together, wands gripped tightly in their hands. "I'll stun 'em while you shield us, you're better at shield charms!" James muttered in her ear. She nodded, blocking a curse sent from behind with a quick flick of her wrist. A masked figure loomed in front of her. "Crucio!"

"Protego!" she shouted and the curse bounced harmlessly off her shield. "Stupefy!" the Death Eater blocked it easily and shot a stream of purple flames at her. "Aguamenti!" the fire hissed into a cloud of smoke. Behind her she could hear James duelling someone else. She and her opponent blocked and attacked like some strange, twisted dance. She felt James move away from her back and risked a glance over her shoulder. His wand was locked with his attacker's in a deadly fusion of light and colour, arms trembling with the effort of keeping it still. "Crucio!" she heard, and spun around, but too late to block the curse that hit her square in the middle. She collapsed to the ground, jerking uncontrollably as thousands of white hot knives stabbed her body. The pain was worse than anything she could've imagined as she curled into a ball, hugging her knees, waiting for it to end, longing for death. Over the roar of blood in her ears, over her own screams, she faintly heard laughter, then a shout of rage, and the pain stopped. She opened her eyes, hardly daring to believe that it was gone, that she was still alive. The sand was soft but something was digging into her shoulder. She shut her eyes again, the remnants of the curse still dancing over her skin, but it was bearable now. "Lily?" she snapped her eyes open again. She saw a pair of bare feet, a patch of red sand, the hem of a long, black robe. The world swum slightly before her eyes. What was she doing there, lying on the sand? What had caused the pain? Why had it gone? Her eyes drooped shut once more, only to jerk open as she remembered. They were fighting, fighting and losing, fighting the Death Eaters. She sat up quickly, ignoring the way the ground moved dizzyingly under her she got to her feet, fighting to stay focused. The world blacked out for a second but when she opened her eyes she was still standing, just. An arm encircled her waist, and flashes of light kept flying past. She shook her head fiercely, ignoring the throbbing pain in her temples, and the fire that flickered over her skin. "Lily!" the voice was closer this time, behind her, and she twisted round to see the concerned grey eyes of Sirius. "You okay?" he muttered and she nodded. "Can you stand?" she nodded again and he removed his arm, ready to catch her if she fell. She wobbled slightly, still weak from the pain, but stayed on her feet and he saw the old determination back in her green eyes. He hugged her quickly before darting away, to help James who was duelling two Death Eaters on his own. She had barely turned and sent Stunning Spell at someone's back before the shout went up. "The Ministry! They're here!" the whole beach cheered as more figures materialised among them, and the air was thick with flying spells. She dropped to the ground, lying flat to avoid the curses, and spotted James lying not far from her. He had a cut above one eye but other than that seemed fine, and he smirked at her. "Alright Lils?" she nodded, still feeling woozy, the after effects of the curse not quite gone, and concern flashed across his face. "Did they get you?" she nodded again. "What with?"

"Cruciatus, the bastards." they turned to see Sirius crawling towards them, Remus at his side. They both looked unharmed apart from a few scrapes and bruises. James made to stand up but both Lily and Remus grabbed his feet. "I'm fine James, let the Aurors deal with it. We've done enough, if we try to fight we'll be in the way." her voice sounded thick. James hesitated before slumping back to the ground. He reached out to stroke her hair out of her face. "Sorry Lils." she frowned. "What for?" she mouthed, suddenly finding herself unable to speak. The world swam again, and she vaguely heard James replying to her question before the pain was back, worse than before. Her skin was on fire, she was being torn apart from the inside. She screamed and howled at the same time, sounding like a wolf in pain, and a girl in agony. _Let me die_ she begged silently, tears streaming down her cheeks. _Anything is better than this._ There was a bang, she briefly registered the absence of pain, before everything went black.

**Hehe, I feel so mean... not entirely sure why though... hmm...**


	4. Chapter 3: Dreams

**Chapter 3: Dreams**

She was in a tree, laughing as she swung from a branch by her arms. The sun was beating down through the lush green leaves. James and Sirius were fencing with sticks while Remus lay by the lake with a book. Across the grass covered in people walking, talking, relaxing and laughing she could see the castle, the sun glinting off its windows. She dropped from the tree, landing lightly on her bare feet, and ran towards the lake, dipping her toes in and letting the cool water lap against her ankles, red hair tumbling around her shoulders and a happy smile on her pretty face. Then the ground erupted from beneath her and she was blasted backwards, landing crumpled against the trunk of the tree. The ground around her burst into fire, but there was no noise. No screams, no curses. Not the roar of the flames, not her own breath coming in rough gasps, not the sound of the breeze in the trees. She scrambled away from the tree as it too burst into flames. She spotted a gap in the fire and ran for it, only to be driven back as it closed around her. She tripped, falling backwards, feeling something sticky pouring down the side of her face, her vision obscured by blood. She shouted for James, Sirius, anyone as the fire rained down on her.

Then the world spun around her, the fire died, the blood vanished, and she was back in the tree, perched on a branch. The sun was still beating down through the leaves, it still glinted off the castle windows, but instead of people walking, talking, relaxing and laughing the ground was littered with corpses. She dropped from the tree, landing lightly on her bare feet and she ran across charred grass to where James lay. His glasses were askew, but that was the only sign something was wrong. She stroked his cheek. It was cold and hard, and his eyes stared up at her, unseeing. She ran to Sirius. A smile was still plastered on his lifeless face, but his once so lively grey eyes were dull. Fear constricting her chest she half ran, half stumbled to the lakeside where Remus lay, clutching his book, eyes closed. She collapsed, and howled her pain to the sky, to the sun that continued to shine, defying her grief, to the birds that continued to sing despite the wreckage around them, and the air around her was filled with laughter, but not the happy, carefree laughter that had spilled from her own mouth such a short time ago. It was a vicious, spiteful sound that drove spikes into her shattered heart as she howled to the sky.

**A/N sorry about the howling, that's the wolf in her coming out. This chapter is a bit of a filler, its just what my hands wrote.**


	5. Chapter 4: Voldemort's a bitch

Chapter 4: Voldemort's a bitch

She woke to whiteness, a ray of sunshine falling on her pillow, and a gentle pressure on her left hand. She blinked and the fuzzy room swirled into focus. It was a hospital. She was lying in a bed, one of a long line that stretched down the length of the room. The wooden floor shined, and the sun glinted off the windows. Just like in her dream. She shuddered and closed her eyes for a second. A rustling sound beside her made her open them again and she saw James sitting on a chair by her bed, a small scar above his eye where he had been cut. She smiled at him and he grinned back. "How do you feel?" he asked. She lifted a hand to her head. "Sore." now she thought about it, she was. Her body ached and her head still throbbed a little. "Well, that's only to be expected after being zapped with the Cruciatus curse twice." she blinked. Of course, the beach, the fight, the curse. "I can't believe I blacked out on you!" James chuckled. "Rose said it was a miracle you stayed conscious after the first one, let alone being hit again. Rose is a Healer here." he added, noticing her confused look. "Where is here?" she inquired. "A small hospital near my house. They were going to take you to St Mungos but it was rather full. There have been a lot of Death Eater attacks all over the country, everyone's in shock."

"How long have I been out?" She asked.

"Only since yesterday. The Healers gave you a sleeping draught, said you needed to rest. There's no damage, just being hit twice with the Cruciatus Curse is draining."

"Where are the others?" he caught the slight hurt in her voice that they hadn't wanted to see if she was alright and hastened to reassure her. "They just went out to get some lunch. They'll be back any minute." she opened her mouth to say something but at that moment a tall, willowy Healer came bustling over. "Hello dear, nice to see you awake. Now, you just drink this and then I'll let you go. I know how it is with you youngsters, not able to sit still for more than a minute." she passed Lily a goblet of something hot that smelt of herbs which she swallowed immediately. It warmed her right through and the ache in her bones subsided. Her head felt clearer and more awake. She smiled happily and jumped out of bed. The Healer chuckled slightly at her energy and handed her a vial. "Just drink this if the pain comes back. Goodbye my dear."

"Bye!" cried Lily and she grabbed James' hand. "Come on!" he allowed himself to be dragged along as she skipped out of the hospital, regardless to the fact she was still in just her bikini. On their way out they bumped into Sirius and Remus, both still in their swimming trunks like James, who hugged her, asked how she felt, and filled her in in what had happened. "Well, once you blacked out the Aurors carried on fighting, but then the Death Eater bastards all Disapparated. The Ministry people took most of the injured back to St Mungos but Mr Potter took you here because it's nearer the house, and St Mungos is really crowded. There have been attacks all over the country, mainly in London. Diagon Alley was attacked-" Lily gasped at this and Sirius nodded. "It's true! Loads of people were killed or injured, and they did it in broad daylight too! And the Ministry took ages to turn up because they've been so busy elsewhere."

"Its been in all the papers." interrupted Remus. "The whole Wizarding world is scared. It's Voldemort, he's the one leading them. People are terrified, especially Muggleborns. It's said they're trying to purge society of Muggles and Muggleborns." he glanced at Lily but she didn't notice, or care. "That's disgusting. He's such a bitch!" Sirius snorted with laughter and James chuckled. Remus smiled. "I've heard him called a lot of things but a bitch? Nice one Lils!"

**A/N sorry about the shortness of this chapter, promise the others will be longer. Please review! :) **


	6. Chapter 5: Fusspot

**Chapter 5: Fusspot**

Mrs Potter fussed. Boy, did she fuss. She knew she shouldn't; knew the children, who weren't really children any more, could look after themselves, but she was a mother, so she fussed. She fussed a lot over Lily when they got back from the hospital, fussed over James and his cut, fussed over Sirius and Remus, and fussed over her husband when he got home, tired and stressed, from the Ministry late that evening. Mr and Mrs Potter were both powerful Aurors but Mr Potter dealt more with the paperwork while she did the actual field work, although he did a lot of field work too.

The Marauders didn't mind the fussing, especially Sirius as it meant getting force fed a lot, but after a while all they wanted to do was escape. Ever since they came home, showered and went down to the kitchen to eat Mrs Potter had been fussing. School started again in just under a week and they needed to go to Diagon Alley to get their supplies, but in light of the recent attacks she was hesitant about letting them go.

"Look Mum, they've already attacked Diagon Alley, why would they do so again?" James cried, exasperated. "You can never be sure!" she answered, piling pasta into their bowls. "I think it would be safer if Harold and I went to get your supplies, you can give us the lists." there were several cries of objection. "But Mum, we _always _go and meet up with Mattie and Maya and Frank and Alice! Please!" Sue shook her head. "You're my babies. If anything happened to you..." she trailed off. Sirius spoke up. "But if everyone refuses to go to Diagon Alley, then that's letting Voldemort win, isn't it? He's trying to stop us doing what we want to do, trying to disrupt the world and induce fear. If we let him stop us doing as we normally do that's giving in, and it shows him that what he wants can be achieved in the way he's using! But if we show him that we aren't afraid of him, that we'll laugh and joke and have fun despite what he's doing, then that's another blow for him and a point for us." the kitchen was silent after his little speech. Mrs Potter sighed. "I suppose you're right Sirius dear. You can go to Diagon Alley. But not today, you're all too tired." they protested loudly but she held up her hand. "You've been through something that no child should, you must be tired. I want you to relax today, and tomorrow. You can go to Diagon Alley on Saturday. No buts! Now eat up." they did so.

After eating, Mrs Potter having declined any offers of help, they traipsed upstairs to send owls to their friends, informing them of their plans to go to Diagon Alley on Saturday. Then Lily grabbed her guitar again and they ran out into the summer sunshine, and back to their tree. She sat on a high branch, plucking gently on her beloved guitar, singing under her breath while they chatted about everything and nothing, about the dangers they faced and about the coming school year. They laughed, and were quiet; made jokes, and profound statements. After a while they fell to talking about Quidditch while Remus buried himself in his book once more.

They stayed outside until the sun began to sink below the horizon, and the emptiness of their stomachs compelled them to slip down from the tree and walk in to the house. Harold Potter was there, sipping a cup of coffee and talking seriously to his wife. When they entered he watched them with tired eyes as they raided the fridge and left, not wanting to disturb what was obviously an important conversation. Outside in the hall Sirius made to press his ear against the keyhole but James dragged him back. "Its their business." he hissed. "If we need to know, they'll tell us themselves." he pouted but bounced up the stairs anyway. They sat together in the attic, singing along with Lily, as loudly as they could, blocking out their worries or fears, and just revelling in the moment. Finally, when their voices were hoarse and Lily's eyelids were drooping they stopped, bid each other goodnight and slid down their ladders into their rooms. Lily brushed her teeth, ran a comb through her matted tresses and undressed before slipping between the covers and nestling into her pillows. She closed her eyes and slowly sleep overtook her churning mind.

**A/N sorry for another short chapter but this is how it comes :) I'll try and make the others longer but sometimes it doesn't work out so bear with me. Please review, it makes me happy :)**


	7. Chapter 6: Stargazing

Chapter 6: Stargazing

She was a wolf again, and running through a forest, but not the familiar Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts, and her run wasn't peaceful and enjoyable, but panicked. She was running away from something; what she ran from she didn't know, just that she had to run, or die.

She shot from between the last few trees, and skidded to a halt when the ground abruptly fell away into a pit, a burning pit of flames. Here and there she saw people, burning people. And then there was James, writhing in pain as flames devoured him, Sirius flickering between dog and man, howls echoing through the pit as Remus burned. Behind her she felt a presence, turned around, her hackles raised, teeth bared at the tall figure, clad in a black robe with its face covered with a mask. It cackled horribly and gave her a shove. She toppled backwards into the pit, falling. But she didn't hit the flames, just kept falling. Whenever she looked down her friends were the same distance away from her, but looking up the Death Eater's hideously masked face was shrinking, disappearing...

She sat up with a jolt, heart thumping and sweat glazing her body. She closed her eyes, shaking, but her mind regaled her with pictures of her burning friends. She shook her head, trying to rid herself of these images. It was no good trying to sleep again so she grabbed her duvet and climbed up the ladder to the attic, and from the attic to the roof. Shivering in the night air she walked to the edge of the roof, wrapping herself in her duvet and letting her legs dangle over the edge she gazed out at the moonlit landscape. The moon itself was half its full size but still bright enough to illuminate her surroundings. If she squinted she could just about see the sea, the beach where the fight had been. She forced her mind away from such thoughts and turned her gaze instead to the river, glinting silver in the moonlight. The river where she and James had swum every summer, usually with Sirius and sometimes with Remus too. She remembered water fights, picnics, a sprained ankle when Sirius, being Sirius, had attempted to jump from one side of the river to the other. He slipped in the mud on the opposite bank and ended up lying face down in mud while the others laughed so hard tears came to their eyes (until they realised he was hurt, then they were all kindness and comfort). Thinking about it made her chuckle.

"What's so funny?" the voice from behind her made her jump and let out a yelp of surprise as James sat down beside her, smirking at her shock. She recovered quickly and prodded him in the ribs for smirking. "Nearly gave me a heart attack!" she muttered. "I was just remembering the time Sirius tried to jump from one side of the river to the other." he chuckled as well, a deep, warm sound. "Wasn't the cleverest idea he's ever had."

"I didn't realise Padfoot was noted for clever ideas." she remarked drily. He sniggered. "True..."

"So, what brings you out here?" she asked him. "I can't imagine you left your bed with the sole purpose of frightening me out of my wits?" he mulled over this possibility. "No, plausible as that theory is it is incorrect Miss Evans." she snorted at the name. Looking mildly affronted he continued, "I merely had some trouble sleeping, and thought the night air might do me some good. And yourself? I can't imagine you left your bed with the sole purpose of allowing me to frighten you out of your wits?" she poked him."Bad dreams." she lay back on the damp grass, gazing up at the stars. He followed suit, turning his head slightly so he could watch her. "Care to share?" she sighed. "It's nothing." he raised an eyebrow but said nothing. They were silent for a few moments, her watching the sky, him watching her. "The first one," her voice was quiet, "The one I had in the hospital, started out alright. It was last term, when our OWLS were over and we were outside. I was swinging in the tree by the lake, Remus was reading and you and Sirius were fencing with sticks. Remember?" he nodded. It was one of those lazy summer days when all you wanted to do was be outside, a day that passed in a haze of sunshine and contentment. She described her dream, not looking at him, staring at the stars. She sat up when she had finished, wrapping her arms around her knees as she told him about the second one. He winced when she came to the end, and sat up too so he could wrap his own arms around her tense shoulders, pulling her close so her head was on his chest. He murmured gently into her hair. "It's just a dream, I'm still here, Padfoot is snoring his ass of downstairs and Moony is probably doing some late night reading." she smiled into his chest. "Sorry." she murmured. "What for?" he whispered back. "For being silly. They're just dreams after all."

"You can be silly whenever you please Lils. And I know how disturbing bad dreams can be, I should know. I was visited by the same nightmare well into third year."

"What was it?" she asked curiously. He shuddered. "There was this _massive_ yellow duck that chased me round a pond. It was huge, with an enormous blue beak." she giggled. "Really?" she murmured, "No." he admitted. "I was just trying to make you feel better." she chuckled. "It wasn't a duck. It was a Grindylow, but I thought duck sounded more dramatic." she laughed at him, hugging him tightly before letting go and lying back down to watch the stars. He stayed sitting, legs dangling off the edge. They were quiet for nearly twenty minutes, and he thought she'd fallen asleep until she spoke. "James?"

"Yes?" he turned around to face her as she propped herself on her elbows, looking at him. "Are you scared?"

"What of?"

"Voldemort. Death Eaters. Scared for your family and friends. Scared that you won't be strong enough, or brave enough, or good enough. Scared that we won't win." the words tumbled out of her. "Scared that maybe we won't be enough, that hope isn't enough, that they'll overpower us. Scared that so many people will die it won't be worth fighting any more. Scared that in the middle of the war we'll lose whatever is it we're fighting for. That in fighting, we make things worse. Scared that you might think that it's better to give in. Scared of becoming so scared you can't trust anyone any more. Scared of being scared. Scared of this war, scared of the things happening that we have absolutely no control over." she stopped. He thought for a moment. "Yes Lily, I'm scared of all those things and more. And I think we all are. Are you?" she nodded. "I'm scared that war will change so many things, and that so many people will die. And I'm scared that when it comes to it, I won't be able to do it, whatever it is. Scared of betraying my friends. Scared of not being brave, I guess..."

"Everyone is." James said simply. "No one knows if they're brave, no one knows if they'll betray their friends because, when it comes to it, we don't know what they might do to us. We've never gone through anything like this before, and hopefully no one will have to go through it again. All I know is we have to fight, we have to do something because if we don't who knows what might happen. There are so many different ways we can fight, so many different types of resistance, but if I don't fight for the people I love, and the people I've never met, and the people I never will meet, the people who've died, and the people who will die, then I'm almost as bad as them." (by them he meant the Death Eaters.) Lily nodded. "I have to do something, I hate being so useless! I want to fight, I need to fight. I will fight. And we will win this war James, we _will._" he smiled at her determination. "I know we will Lils."

**A/N wow this was hard to write. Lots of angst, I think, but I hope you people enjoyed it :) it is a bit longer than the others.. *looks around guiltily* please don't shoot me!**


	8. Chapter 7: Diagon Alley

Chapter 7: Diagon Alley

The next day passed much the same as the previous one, with lots of food and a rather harassed looking Harold Potter buried in his study, occasionally emerging for cups of coffee and earnest chats with his wife. On Friday however they all got up bright and early, ready to Floo to Diagon Alley. Lily sang to herself as she pulled on a knee length pair of baggy black shorts and a green t-shirt with a panda on the front. She scraped her hair into a ponytail and grabbed her green Converse while stuffing her money and supply list into her pockets. She stuck her wand in her pocket too and ran downstairs where the rest of the family and Sirius and Remus were waiting. James smirked at her as she sat on the table to put her shoes on. James' parents had insisted on coming to Diagon Alley too so that they would be in the area if needed. Once Lily's shoes were finally tied up Remus grabbed a handful of Floo powder and threw it in the grate, turning the flames acid green as they flickered around him. "Diagon Alley!" he shouted and vanished. Mr Potter went next, then Sirius, Lily, then James and finally Mrs Potter.

Once in Diagon Alley the Marauders waved goodbye to the adults and went to Gringotts to withdraw some money from their vaults.

Stepping back into the sun-bathed street, pockets pleasingly full, they were stunned at the lack of people. Instead of hordes ogling the newest broomstick Quality Quidditch Supplies was looking woefully empty, the Leaky Cauldron look dingier than ever and Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour was positively deserted; the owner himself looking up and down the street in the hope of customers. No first years were excitedly running around, fidgeting while their mothers chatted; instead they were being ushered from one shop to the next by worried looking women who did not stop to chat but looked fearfully over their shoulders as if expecting attack. Older students were huddled together in groups, talking seriously. Instead of the street ringing with happy laughter, the only sound was the subdued chatter and knock of boots on the cobbles. The strange silence affected the Marauders too, they barely spoke a word to each other as they bought their books, stocked up on potions ingredients and were fitted for new robes. The manager of Quality Quidditch Supplies looked delighted at the prospect of customers and desperately tried to sell them his new broom, which they looked at and admired, but left all too soon because the man's overly cheerful demeanour was getting to them.

Weighed down with school supplies they stood in the street, scanning the shops for signs of their friends, until a happy shout made heads turn in surprise. "Lily! Lily!" she was swamped by three girls who hugged her so hard she couldn't breathe, while Frank greeted the boys and guided them all to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour and sat them down. Mattie, Alice and Maya (for of course it was them) gushed excitedly about their summers, and quizzed Lily about the attack on the beach. While the girls caught up, Sirius asked Frank about his summer. Frank was a man of few words who held Alice's hand under the table, but what he said was heartfelt and true.

Once everyone was informed on the happenings of the past two months they started to talk, inevitably, about the attacks. So far the eight of them had remained unscathed, but Merlin only knows how long that'll last for, thought Lily as she watched Maya talking animatedly about becoming a Healer. They ate their ice creams, then Mr and Mrs Potter returned and told them it was time to go home as it was getting dark. They bid each other goodbye, and safety over the two days remaining of the holiday before hugging and going their separate ways.

On Saturday Lily and Remus went home, promising to meet them at the station on Monday. The Evans were happy to see her; they had no idea of the strife going on in the wizarding world and Lily felt she had to tell them. So, after dinner that evening she sat them and Petunia down and told them about Voldemort, and the Death Eaters, and the attacks on Muggles and Muggleborns, and that they had to be alert, and write to her often so she knew they were safe. They were worried, of course they were, worried that their daughter was not only living in a dangerous world, but also preparing to fight, but they understood that it was something she had to do, and that nothing they said would stop her. Petunia was not happy that because of her they had become a target, and she didn't keep it a secret. She yelled at Lily, and Lily yelled back, and their parents yelled at both of them, but afterwards they all made up, although Petunia was still distant towards Lily. She sighed as she went to sleep. They used to be so close, but now all they did was fight.


	9. Chapter 8: September 1st

Chapter 8: September 1st

"Come on Lily, we're going to be late!" yelled Mr Evans as he stood in the hall and jangled the car keys. Lily heaved her trunk down the stairs, the cage containing Pumpkin (she was nothing but original) her barn owl clutched tightly in her hand. Petunia and Mrs Evans were already in the car as she lugged her trunk down the gravel path, her father locking the door behind her. She lifted it (not without difficulty) into the boot and shut the lid before clambering into the back seat, Pumpkin on her lap, next to a grumpy looking Petunia (who didn't understand why she had to see Lily off, but there was no arguing with Mrs Evans after she had made her mind up). The journey was long, the traffic dreadful, but eventually they arrived at Kings Cross station and Mr Evans carried her trunk onto the trolley for her, and she perched Pumpkin on top, and kissed her parents goodbye, and hugged her sister who, after a glare from their mother, hugged her back stiffly, muttering insults in her ear as she did so. With a last farewell and the promise to write regularly and stay safe Lily pushed her trolley through the wall and entered platform 9 ¾.

She was shocked when she stepped out into the crowd by the number of people in tears. Everywhere she looked sobbing parents held tightly to crying children, unwilling to let them go, aware that, for some, this might be the last time they would ever see them.

"LILS! LILY! EVANS! OVER HERE!" came the roar from the train. She looked up to see James leaning out of the door, waving frantically. She lifted the hand that wasn't carrying Pumpkin, and waved back. Once he knew she'd seen him he leapt off the train and disappeared into the milling students. Every now and then she caught a glimpse of his shaggy black hair bouncing above the crowd, until he reached her and swept her off her feet in a huge hug. Laughing, she hugged him tightly before wriggling out of his grasp and picking up one end of her trunk. Like the gentleman he was he let her struggle for a few moments before taking the other end and helping her onto the train with it. They stowed their luggage and went to find the compartment Sirius was saving for them. They reached it and Lily was swamped by a Sirius hug before finally being able to put Pumpkin on the rack and sit down. "Where's Remus?" she asked. "He should be back soon, he's in the Prefect carriage." replied James. "He's a prefect?! Since when? Why didn't he tell us when he got the letter?" she cried. James and Sirius looked at each other, before chuckling. "Ickle Remmykins was embarrassed!" cackled Sirius. "Embarrassed of being made a goody goody Prefect!" Lily laughed too. "Well, if that's the way you react, I'd be embarrassed too!" Sirius threw a chocolate frog at her head which she caught, in her mouth. "Thanks Padfoot!" she mumbled through a mouthful of chocolate. He pouted. "I was _trying_ to hit you with it. Humph." Lily cackled evilly and James, who had been standing at the compartment door looking up and down the train for Remus, gave a shout. "He's here! Moony! Mr Prefect! OI!" he yelled. Compartment doors up and down the train opened at his yell and disgruntled faces glared at him. "Sorry!" he shouted cheerily as Remus came up to him, shaking his head slightly at his friend who clapped him on the back and forcefully guided him into the compartment. Lily leapt up and hugged him too before shouting, "Why didn't you tell us you'd been made a Prefect?!" Remus looked guilty. "Cos I'm a Marauder! Marauders _aren't _Prefects, are they?"

"Well, this one is." came James' voice from where he was wrestling Sirius for a chocolate frog. "Look Padfoot, Mum gave them to you to _share, _not to scoff the entire lot."

"If she wanted them shared, she wouldn't have given them to me, would she?" Sirius objected. Unfortunately no one could argue with the truth of this statement and Lily sat down again, saying to Remus, "We're proud of you being a Perfect, sorry _Prefect_, aren't we boys?" a loud snort came from under James who was currently sitting on Sirius, trying to get him to relinquish his chocolate. "Sure Moony, but this better not mean you lose all your fun and refuse to play pranks any more. We need your cleverness in some of the more tricky ones." both Lily and the squashed Sirius made indignant noises. "I'll have you know I'm just as clever as Moony." Lily stuck her nose in the air, trying to look pompous, and just looking stupid. "Well, maybe you're as clever," James tried to pacify her, "But you can't really be called _sensible _now, can you?"

"Or responsible, like me!" came the muffled cry. Everyone laughed at this, seeing as Sirius was possibly the least responsible person ever to have set foot in Hogwarts. He finally managed to shove James off him and sit up, looking miffed at the laughter. "Face it Padfoot, you are many things but responsible? Don't make me laugh." Sirius threw another Chocolate Frog at Lily, which she caught in her mouth again, and everyone laughed at Sirius' sulky face. "Anyway Moony," she continued after she swallowed her stolen frog. "What James was trying to say is that, Prefect or not, you're still a Marauder, and don't think you can skive off or break the Marauder code, or refuse to help us in pranks, or take points away from us, okay?" he laughed. "Sure thing Lils. I'd never dream of abandoning my Marauder-ness."

"Well that's a relief." Sirius muttered. Lily threw the empty chocolate frog box at him, which he caught in his mouth, only to spit it out hurriedly when he realised it wasn't chocolate. He stuck his tongue out at Lily, "Real mature Padfoot," sniggered Remus, and turned his back on them, staring out the window. The train blew its whistle and started to move slowly out of the station, leaving crying families on the platform, waving tearily to their kids. All four Marauders pressed their faces against the glass and waved vigorously at Mr and Mrs Potter, who were among the dry eyed of the crowd, until they were out of sight. They slumped back into their seats, the depressing sight of distraught families not helped by the spots of rain now appearing on the glass. "I wonder how many of those families will ever see their children again..." mused Remus. "So many of them are going to die." Sirius threw a chocolate frog at him, which he caught in his mouth. Sirius growled. "Way to kill the mood Moony."

"But it's true, isn't it?" Lily said quietly, "Think of all the people on this train who know they'll never see their parents again, Muggleborns especially. They know Voldemort is targeting them and their families, they know it's only a matter of time before the first black envelopes start arriving. So many parents didn't want them to come back to Hogwarts, didn't want to risk losing them. But they're at more danger if they stay at home really, aren't they? If they're with their families then all of them will be murdered. Hogwarts is the safest place to be, Dumbledore's there."

"But they know that if they send them to Hogwarts, so many of them will fight. Voldemort is bound to target Hogwarts in the end, maybe not in our era, or even Dumbledore's, but while Hogwarts still stands it's a threat." James fell silent, staring out at the rain which now beat against the glass and obscured nearly everything.

"And if Hogwarts is attacked, or threatened, we'll fight. And our parents know it, and they know nothing they can do will stop us. Not everyone will fight like we will, not all of them will be out there firing spells from the front-line, but everyone will fight in some way. No one here is going to give in to that bastard, well, maybe the Slytherins and their Death Eater parents, and he knows it too. He knows that conquering Hogwarts will be hard but he knows that his reward will be greater. Once Hogwarts no longer stands he won't meet with any resistance. Why, if Dumbledore and his 'army'," Sirius made quotation marks in the air with his fingers as he spoke, "can be defeated, who stands a chance? Which is why everyone will fight. We're the wizarding world's hope."

No one spoke again until the food trolley came trundling round, and they filled their pockets with sweets of all shapes and sizes. No sooner had they sat down than the compartment door opened again to reveal none other than Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape, sixth year Slytherins whom the Marauders had waged a war against since fourth year, when Snape had broken his and Lily's friendship by calling her a Mudblood, and duelling her. "Well, well look who it is," drawled Malfoy. "Blood traitor, blood traitor, half blood. Mudblood. How nice to see you all again." Sirius threw a chocolate frog at him, which he caught in his mouth and ate. "Why thank you Black. How's that family of yours doing now? I heard they blasted your name off their family tree." Sirius feigned confusion. "I don't know what family you're talking about. The Potters are my family, and I don't recall them having a family tree. James, do you have a family tree?"

"No Padfoot, we don't. What a curious thing to say, Malfoy." Malfoy snarled and Snape walked forwards, grabbing Lily's chin and glaring into her eyes. She stared back defiantly while the compartment held its breath. "Snape, would you mind getting your filthy hands off me? I just washed my face, and don't want it contaminated. I don't know _where _those hands have been." Snape leered at her. "Think you're so funny, don't you Mudblood." she ignored the name. "Honestly Snape, you'd think you could come up with some more original insults. Mudblood gets rather tedious after a while. And yes, actually I do think I am rather funny. Now kindly remove those offensive extremities from my face before I blast them off." he released her and she stood up. She did not tower over him, was in fact slightly shorter, but that made her no less intimidating and he took an unwilling step back as she whipped out her wand from her jeans. Brandishing it at Snape she said pleasantly, "Now if you don't mind vacating our compartment and crawling back into the slimy hole you live in, where, by the way, they really need to stock up on shampoo, I would be very much obliged, and less inclined to hex you into next week." Sirius snorted at this, he and James standing slightly behind her while Remus held the door open for them. "This isn't the last you'll see of us, Mudblood!" Malfoy cried as he backed out of the door. "I should hope not, I do so relish your company. You are excellent subjects for my practising that new jinx I learnt over the summer." Malfoy grabbed Snape and shoved him out of the compartment, turning around to give them the finger as they left. "The pleasure is all mine, no, no, don't thank me for your lovely stay!" she called after them before Remus closed the door.

They lowered their wands and slumped back into their seats. "Well, now that we've upheld tradition and had out first confrontation of the year, how about some of those liquorice wands, eh?" said Sirius cheerily as he chucked sweets at everyone. Remus stood up. "Sorry guys, I've got to patrol the train. Prefect stuff." he left to a chorus of goodbyes. Lily stared out at the storm, lost in her thoughts.

"Lily!"

"Lils! Earth to the Carrot!"

"Huh?" she turned around, shaking her head to clear her daydream. James sighed. "I've only been trying to get your attention for the last five minutes. It's time to get changed, we'll be at Hogsmeade soon. What were you thinking about? It must've been deep if you didn't hex me for calling you Carrot." she threw her wand at him, which he grabbed and ran, as she snarled and stood up, pulling her robes off the rack. "Out!" she pointed at the door. Sirius leered at her. "Sure we can't stay? You know secretly you want us to." he waggled his eyebrows at her. She managed to keep a straight face, brandishing her wand at him threateningly. "Get out you pervert before I practise my hexes on you so I'm perfect for Malfoy!" He went. Grudgingly. He knew she would keep her promise.

Once she was decent she went out while the boys changed, though Sirius tried to make her stay. "That boy is too horny for his own good." she muttered to herself. "Who is?" the voice behind her made her jump. Whirling around she stuck her wand under their chin before realising who it was. "Oops. Sorry Mattie." her friend sighed. "What will we do with you Lils?" she hugged her. "So, who's too horny for their own good?"

"I believe she was referring to me." Sirius stuck his head out of the compartment. "Hello Wilmot. Care to join us?" she nodded and they all sat down again, closing the door. "Where's Maya?" asked Lily. Mattie sighed. "Off doing Prefect stuff. With Remus. Honestly that girl should just kiss him already. It's obvious they fancy the pants off each other." James laughed at her phrasing. "True. We've been trying to get him to ask her out for ages, but he's too embarrassed. Thinks she won't want to date a werewolf."

"That's stupid!" cried Mattie. "We've known he's a werewolf since third year, almost as long as you guys have known, and since when has anyone cared? If she had a problem with werewolves, believe me, she wouldn't have hung around with him for so long."

"Barmy." agreed Sirius. "He's got this thing that people will automatically hate him cos of what he is. He doesn't seem to understand that he's no more a monster than McGonagall is. He's just daft, that's what he is."

"Speak of the devil." Remus had just entered their compartment, Maya behind him. "Daft am I? And why is that?" he inquired. "We were discussing how barmy it was that you think we'll hate you cos you're a werewolf. And that you should ask Maya out already." Remus smiled. "Funny you should say that now," he said, looking rather pink. "I'm taking this lovely lady to Hogsmeade on the first visit." Mattie screamed and hugged a blushing Maya and the boys whistled. "Congrats mate." their chatter was interrupted by the first note coming from Lily's guitar, "Methinks we should have a celebratory sing-along." she announced, sitting on the floor underneath the window. "Who's with me?" there was a rousing cheer as she strummed the beginning of _All I want is you_ by Moldy Peaches (**A/N it's a happy song. Go listen)**.

They were so caught up in the music that they didn't notice when the train stopped, doors opened and the students left. In fact, they only realised they were at Hogsmeade when the guard blew the whistle and with a jolt the train started to move again. They leapt to their feet in a panic and, grabbing their luggage, and Lily her guitar, raced to the door, staring out wildly at the station disappearing behind them as the train picked up speed. "We'll have to jump!" shouted Lily. "What?!" cried Maya. "We'll be killed!" Lily laughed. "Live a little! What's life without risks?!" and saying that she opened the door, levitated her guitar safely onto the ground and leapt for it. She hit the ground, rolled with the force and sprang to her feet; the train hurtled on and she saw three more dark shapes land on the ground, whom she guessed where the Marauders, then two smaller ones jumped hand in hand. The train had gone, vanished into the night. She rescued her guitar from a bush where luckily it had escaped damage, slung it on her back and picked up her bag. Hopefully their trunks had been taken up to the school with the rest. She stepped onto the tracks and made her way to where she saw the figures land and sure enough James, Sirius and Remus were struggling out of various bushes and onto the rails. She waved and shouted, they saw her and jogged towards her. "You alright?" James asked breathlessly, hugging her. "Yeah!" she breathed, a glint in her eye. "That was awesome, we should so make a habit of that!" James laughed and Sirius nodded vigorously. Remus looked less sure but happy all the same. "Nearly killed us all, but great fun!" came the shout from Mattie who was helping Maya along the tracks. "She twisted her ankle, landed funny, but other than that we're okay. How bout you?" "Adrenaline rush much!" crowed Sirius. "We better hope our trunks were taken up with the rest. The guitar fare okay Lils?" she nodded happily and they set off along the tracks. It was still pouring with rain and their robes weighed them down but Lily cast a water repelling charm on her guitar so it was safe, but didn't think of doing that for her or her friends so it was six wet and cold teenagers who finally arrived at the massive doors of Hogwarts. They opened the doors and slipped inside, shivering as they crossed the hall, leaving a trail of muddy footprints and water. "Way to make an entrance." muttered Remus. "School hasn't even started yet and we've probably got detention already!" "Live a little Moony." James echoed Lily's words from earlier. "Think about it this way, we're setting a new Marauder record. Anyhow, it's not like we've never been late for the feast before." meanwhile Lily had peeked through the gap in the doors. "We've never been this late." she observed. "We've missed the Sorting! Ready?" she asked, and flung the doors open.

The entire hall fell silent as the Marauders and Mattie and Maya stood on the threshold, dripping wet, muddy and Lily with a guitar on her back. Glancing at James she took his and Sirius' hands, James took Remus' and they bowed as the Gryffindor table erupted into cheers (why, I don't know) and there were cries of, "I thought they'd been expelled!" and "They came back!" as they strutted to their seats and sat down, Lily propping her guitar up beside her. Dumbledore stood up. "Now that Mr Potter, Mr Black, Mr Lupin, Miss Evans, Miss Wilmot and Miss Baines have been kind enough to grace us with their presence, by the way, Professor McGonagall would like to see you in her office after the feast, I would like to say a few words. I will not make a long speech, I know you are hungry and tired, and do not want to hear an old man witter on about nothing very much, so I must simply remind you that the Forbidden Forest is just that," here he looked at the damp Marauders who put on innocent faces and looked around them as if to say, who, me? Dumbledore smiled slightly before continuing. "And the list of prohibited items is, as usual, pinned on Mr Filch's office door. We have no new additions to our staff, and I have no further announcements to make apart from enjoy your meal and have a good night's sleep." he sat down amid applause and the plates filled with dishes of all varieties.

Lily immediately piled her plate high with roast chicken, carrots and potatoes, drowning it all in gravy. She looked at Sirius who's own plate was heaped with roast beef, Yorkshire pudding and peas. He looked back at her, and a grin spread itself over each person's features. James looked from one to the other, rightly guessing their intentions. He held up a magical stopwatch, kept in his pockets for just such an occasion. Lily and Sirius took their forks in hand. The Gryffindor table had fallen silent in expectation; first years looking on in confusion, older students in anticipation. "Sirius Black. I challenge you to our annual eating contest. Whoever can finish their plate first wins, and holds the title of Lord of Food for a whole term. Do you accept my challenge?" Sirius' grey eyes sparkled. "Hell yeah!" he answered defiantly. James spoke up. "On my mark, let the challenge commence. On your marks," the pair stared each other down, "Get set," they lowered their eyes to their plates, gripping their cutlery tightly, "Go!" they shoved their forks into their food, forcing great chunks of meat into their mouths, ripping potatoes apart. As they did so the other two Marauders heaped more food onto their plates until James cried "One minute!" and they sat down again. Both plates were precariously full, but the pair did not falter, just kept stuffing food into their mouths. The first years looked on in awe, people craned their necks to try and spot who was winning. Sirius was a potato ahead, his plate only holding a slice of beef, five peas, a Yorkshire pudding and two potatoes whereas Lily's had a smaller slice of chicken, two carrots, a sausage and three potatoes. Every now and then they sent each other death glares but Sirius had a triumphant grin as he forced the beef into his mouth. However Lily wasn't going to be beaten that easily and she flicked her wand under the table causing his potatoes to double in size. He growled and waved his own wand. The carrot in her mouth reappeared on her plate, however many she ate there was still one left. She hissed and Remus muttered the counter charms. They snarled at him, and continued to stuff food into their mouths. Sparks shot from Lily's wand as she used it to move Sirius' plate away from him. He retaliated by vanishing the bench from under her. She fell with a squeal to the floor but clambered to her knees and continued to eat. They were neck and neck, each with two potatoes left, and she finished hers seconds before Sirius let out a yell of triumph, only to fall to the floor, wailing in anguish at the magical stopwatch. Lily leapt onto the table to tumultuous applause, bowing left and right, red hair flying around her. She did a little victory dance before restoring her bench and sitting down again, a huge and happy grin on her face as a shamefaced Sirius crawled back to his seat and sat. Being the kind and fair winner she was, she laughed at him for three minutes solid before crowing, "I am the Lord of Food!" and graciously accepting the makeshift crown from Remus.

Finally the remains of the desserts faded from the plates and Dumbledore stood up. "Congratulations to Lily Evans for winning the Annual Eating Contest, better luck next term Mr Black. First years, the prefects will lead you to your common rooms. Sleep well everyone." "Come on!" Lily bounced up and grabbed her guitar, slinging it on her back. "We'd better visit McGonagall. She probably just wants to say how much she's missed us."

They headed out of the hall, Sirius still muttering angrily about losing the competition. They knocked on the door of McGonagall's office and entered. She was sitting at her desk and looked up as they came in. "Hello Minnie!" grinned Sirius. "Miss us?" she stared icily at him. "On the contrary, Black, I found my summer to be a delightfully restful one." he smirked. "You love us really." she ignored him. "I am sure you are aware why you have been called here. No Mr Black, not to catch up, or regale each other with tales of our summers," Sirius looked disappointed. "Can you please explain to me why you six were so late for the feast? I know for a fact you were on the train as Mr Lupin and Miss Baines reported to me for Prefect duty." they burst into their explanations all at once. McGonagall help up a hand. "Only one person needs to explain thank you. Mr Lupin if you would be so kind?" Remus explained what had happened. When he had finished McGonagall nodded. "I expected something of that sort. Five points from Gryffindor for being late, but I am sure it was unintentional so you will not receive detentions. You may go." Sirius pouted. "Not going to regale us with tales of your holiday?" he grinned. "No Mr Black, much as it pains me to say it, I am not interested in your holidays, and I assure you that mine hold no interest whatsoever for yourself. Goodnight." they left.

Once Mattie and Maya had bid them goodnight and left the common room the Marauders slumped into armchairs by the fire. "You know that conversation we had on the train?" yawned Lily. James, to whom this was addressed, nodded. "So many people in our year haven't come back. Mary MacDonald hasn't, her parents fled to Australia. Beth's brother was killed because he married a Muggle, she hasn't come back either." "Beth Richards?" asked Sirius. Lily nodded. "I dated her last year. She's a sweet little thing. Worshipped her brother. Sam, wasn't it?" Lily was surprised. "Yes. How come you remember her so clearly? You only dated two weeks! Mind you, that was a record..." Sirius blushed and muttered something unintelligible. "She was the one our Padfoot had a bit of a thing for." remarked Remus. Sirius threw a cushion at his head, which he ducked. "Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did!"

"Didn't!"

"Did!"

"Okay!" yelled James. "We get the picture! Now shut your traps!" both Remus and Sirius fell silent, shooting each other glares and mouthing "Did!" and "Didn't!". Lily yawned hugely, which set off the others. Once everyone had finished Remus stretched and stood up. "Night all. See you tomorrow." He left and Sirius followed him after several more yawns. This left James and Lily sitting in comfortable silence, watching the fire die. "Lily?" James said after a while, glancing around at the almost deserted room. "Are you scared for your family? All this talk about Muggleborns being targeted, it worries us but must worry you more." she didn't answer for such a long time he thought she might have fallen asleep, but he could see the flickering embers reflected in her thoughtful eyes. "I am worried about them, it's only natural, but it's more the Muggleborns themselves being targeted, rather than their families, and I'm here with Dumbledore. Anyway, what's the use in being scared? That's what he wants, Voldemort wants us to live in fear, I'm not going to give him that satisfaction." James refrained from mentioning the pages of the Daily Prophet filled with names, Muggle names, of innocent, stolen lives. As well as the families of and any people who cared to associate with Muggleborns were Muggles who were in no way related to wizards of any kind. Random purges of society, trying to rid the world of all those considered 'filth'. He was certain Lily was aware of this too, that she wasn't being naïve, but he didn't press the matter. Soon they too left for bed, the conversation unnerving them both.

_**A/N this was eight whole pages on Word! Why does it look so small? **piteous wail****_

_**:'(**_


	10. Chapter 9: First day, first prank

_**Sorry about the wait but I was stuck on how to begin it and have been working on my one-shots. Enjoy :)

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Chapter 9: First Day

"If we charm the seats..."

"No, we can't charm the seats unless we do it at night, there's always _someone _in the Great Hall."

"Yeah, you're right, but what if we get into the kitchens and do it then?"

"No, the house elves will see us."

"But what can they do about it? They're _tiny."_

"But they can still do magic, and we'll be way outnumbered. Charming it in the kitchens isn't a possibility."

"We could lurk outside their classrooms and hex them as they come out?"

"Don't be daft Padfoot, there's four of us and loads of Slytherins, and they're all in different classes! But we _could__-"_

"Potter! Black! Evans! Lupin! Why are you talking in my lesson?"

"Remus was explaining to James about the use of the Hippogriff feather in the Shrinking Draught but he wasn't sure about the Flobberworm blood so I helped him out." Lily lied, and showed Professor Slughorn their potion, giving Sirius time to sweep the Marauders' Map and their hastily scribbled plans into his bag. The overweight teacher peered into their swirling lilac potion and nodded. "Very well made Miss Evans, but in future I would prefer you not to converse in my lessons." he ambled off to help a Slytherin who's potion was sending orange smoke up to the roof of the dungeon. "Phew. He nearly saw the map!" sighed Sirius. "James, what were you saying about-"

"Black! Whatever you have to say can wait half an hour until lunch!"

Half an hour later they spilled out of the dungeons with Slughorn bellowing their homework over the noise, and the four of them joined the crowds heading for the Great Hall. "Siri-poo! Siri!" came the shout from behind them and a tall, skinny blonde came up to them and latched onto Sirius' arm. "Vicky. Nice to see you." he bent to kiss her as the other three made good their escape.

"But listen to me, if we give Peeves the balloons filled with-" James broke off as Sirius sat down with his hair a mess. "How'd it go with Vicky? You kept her?"

"Not any more." Sirius sighed. "She's _way_ too clingy. Kept refusing to let me leave, practically chained me to the broom closet."

"Kinky." sniggered James. Sirius hit him over the head with a bread roll and started to scoop pie onto his plate.

"Anyway, as I was _saying_, if we give Peeves the balloons filled with the Shrinking Draught we nicked from Potions yesterday, and he can drop them on the Slytherins as they come into the Hall."

"And on anyone else, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff _or _Ravenclaw." Remus pointed out. "Look, this is our first prank of the year and it has to be spectacular, meaning we can't entrust _anything_ to someone like Peeves. This has to be immaculately planned and perfectly executed. We're the Marauders, we have to keep up our reputation." everyone nodded seriously. "It's too hard to separate the Slytherins from the rest of the school, so we have to prank everyone. So, how about we..." they all leaned closer as he outlined the plan.

"Alright, it's time to get down to Care of Magical Creatures. Do we all know the drill for tonight?" Remus asked as he slung his bag onto his shoulder and stood up. They nodded. "Alright then. Lily,, have you got the Dungbombs?" she nodded and patted the pocket of her robes. "All present and correct. Come on, we're going to be late."

After Care of Magical creatures, in which Sirius' Niffler decided to eat his hair, Remus, Lily and Sirius loitered at the back of the crowd heading into the castle. "Have you got them?" Lily asked impatiently as James came jogging up to them. He nodded. "She nearly caught me but the Nifflers chose the perfect moment to attack each other, and I got away." Sirius grinned. "This is going to be the _best_ first day prank _ever__!_ And that's saying something after last year's."

"Professor, I think I Confunded Sirius." Lily watched Sirius wander round in circles, exclaiming in wonder at his wand. "Ah, yes Miss Evans. Would you like to escort Mr Black to the Hospital Wing? Madame Pomfrey will sort him out." she nodded and took the bemused Sirius' arm. As soon as they were out of the classroom his face lost its confused expression and they sprinted up four flights of stairs until they reached Gryffindor Tower. Lily ran up the stairs into her dorm and dug out three boxes of Dr Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start No-Heat Fireworks from her trunk. She grinned happily and made her way back to the common room where Sirius was waiting with James' invisibility cloak, and his broom, under his arm. "Got them?" he asked and Lily nodded. "Come on! Flitwick will get suspicious if we take too long." they ran out of the common room, ignoring the Fat Lady's inquiries as to what they were doing there in the middle of class.

They arrived on the ground floor, very out of breath, and ducked into an empty classroom to avoid Filch. "I thought you said he was in the dungeons!" Lily hissed. Sirius looked guilty. "He _was_. But he's just not any more."

"Evidently." muttered Lily, poking her head out of the door. "Come on, it's clear now." They slipped out of the classroom and ran quietly along the now empty corridor.

Minutes later they arrived at their destination at the top of the main staircase, propping the broom and fireworks behind a suit of armour and covering them with the cloak. They then sprinted back to their Charms classroom, where the class was just packing up. "Ah, Mr Black, I see Poppy fixed you up fine." chirped Flitwick. Sirius nodded and picked up his bag. "Homework, two rolls of parchment on Confundus Charms and their use during Grindelwald's reign of terror. Due in next Wednesday. Class dismissed."

"Did you do it?" muttered James as they left. "Yup. The broom is behind the third suit of armour after the top of the stairs."

"Right. You know your cues in Transfiguration?" they all nodded.

"Miss Evans," Lily looked up from the hat she was trying (and failing) to Transfigure into a sock. "Yes Professor?" McGonagall looked disapprovingly at the hat that was still conspicuously hat-shaped. "Where are your shoes?" Lily looked down at her feet which were encased in black tights with a hole in one of the toes, and no shoes. She looked guilty. "I think they're in my Charms classroom Professor." McGonagall looked resigned. This tended to happen. Lily was well known for her hatred of shoes. "Well, Miss Evans, why exactly are they not on your feet where they belong? It's only the first day back, surely you can keep them for a bit longer?" Lily smiled. "Sorry Professor. Should I go and get them?" McGonagall pursed her lips. "No Miss Evans. You will disrupt the class in there, and I would like to see that hat become a sock before the end of the lesson." Lily's smile faded. "But Professor, there isn't a class in there this period." McGonagall sighed. "You may go when your hat has become a sock. _Without _help." she moved on to the next pupil, who had managed to set fire to their hat. Lily sighed. "I'll never get away. She _knows_ how useless I am at Transfiguration." James smirked. "Get Padfoot to divert her and I'll do it for you." she narrowed her eyes at him. "I can do it fine, but I'm only going to let you do it because I admit you can do it faster, and I need the time to get out to the Forest and back. Okay?" his smirk grew wider. "Sure. Oi! Padfoot!" Sirius looked up from his orange and purple hat. "Yeah?"

"Cause a diversion will you?"

"Sure thing mate." Sirius grinned. He flicked his wand at his hat which flew over to the window, sprouting legs and arms on the way. It whizzed past McGonagall's nose and landed on the windowsill screaming, "I'l jump! I will! Don't try and stop me!" the class exploded into laughter and McGonagall was sufficiently distracted to allow James to quickly mutter the incantation and turn Lily's hat into an emerald green sock.

Once order was restored and Sirius' hat had been rescued from its suicidal perch Lily put up her hand. "Professor! I transfigured my hat!" McGonagall came over and inspected her sock. "Are you _sure_ Potter didn't help you?" Lily nodded earnestly. "She did it all by her self." piped up Remus. "I watched her."

"She did!" put in Mattie from the table in front. "I noticed 'cause we were so surprised that Lils actually managed to transfigure something for once." Lily glowered at her. She smirked. "Very well Miss Evans. You may go and collect your shoes from your Charms classroom. But I expect you to return straight away!" Lily nodded and, after James had pressed the keys he stole from Professor Kettleburn earlier into her hand, slipped out of the door.

She sprinted down the stairs and out of the doors, narrowly avoiding Mrs Norris, and tore across the grounds towards the Forest. Ten minutes later she arrived, breathless, back outside her Transfiguration classroom and slipped back inside, shoes now on her feet.

Eventually the bell rang and the Marauders were the first out of the door. They grinned at each other. "Positions!" ordered Remus, and they parted ways.

Sirius and Remus stood in the Entrance Hall, yelling insults at each other at the tops of their lungs. Quite a crowd had gathered to watch the slanging match. Once they deemed the numbers large enough they stopped shouting and stood back to back in the middle. "GO!" roared Sirius, and both he and Remus held their arms in the air and bellowed an incantation. Purple liquid poured from the ceiling, staining anything it touched a shocking violet colour. The commotion was just what Lily needed to release the Nifflers which she had released from their cage using the key James had stolen earlier. For good measure she threw handfuls of hastily transfigured gold into the crowd.

The crowd went mad, and more and more students were flooding into the Entrance hall, heading for dinner. The ceiling still poured purple dye, and the Nifflers were going berserk as James, covered in the invisibility cloak and clutching the boxes of Dr Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start No-Heat Fireworks tightly, hovered above the crowd, waiting for his moment but high enough that he wasn't stained purple by the non decreasing downpour.

The hall was packed now and Peeves was swooping around, cackling merrily at the havoc. More students kept joining the purple, shrieking masses, and now a few teachers were trying their utmost to re-establish some semblance of control. Sirius and Remus were pissing themselves laughing in the centre of the commotion, both vividly purple.

Then came the Grand Finale. James, spotting Lily waving frantically up at him, banished his cloak back to his dormitory to avoid it too getting dyed and set off all three boxes of Dr Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start No-Heat Fireworks at once, just as Lily charmed the windows to be opaque, blocking all light from outside. The purple dye started the fireworks and they looped and span and fizzed and exploded throughout the Entrance Hall, to the whoops and cheers of the school who forgot about the Nifflers and the purple downpour in their awe of the display above them.

Lily was standing at the top of the stairs, cheering with the rest and ready to signal to James for their Grand Finale's Finale when McGonagall arrived on the scene. Lily immediately ducked behind a statue to avoid the irate professor who stood at the top of the stairs and bellowed. "POTTER! EVANS! BLACK! AND LUPIN! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!" Sirius stood up from where he had collapsed during his laughing fit and waved a violet hand at her. "Hello Minnie!" he wobbled and nearly fell over as a Niffler flung itself into his arms. "Hello Sniffy. Minnie! Come and meet Sniffy!" McGonagall positively growled. "Black! I do _not_ want to meet a... Niffler. Especially not one called Sniffy. Now, what is going on?" she raised her voice over the sound of students' shrieks, Peeves' cackles, the Marauders' laughter and the purple flood hitting the floor. "Students! Form a calm and orderly line and file into the Great Hall! Peeves! Go back to where you belong, and _give that student's hat back now._ Or I'll tell the Bloody Baron about you!" Peeves zoomed backwards out of the Entrance Hall, blowing raspberries as he went. The easily intimidated first years started to file into the Great Hall along with a few second years but the rest of the school stayed put, knee deep in purple dye now and being squashed by Nifflers. "Sonorus." muttered McGonagall and her magically amplified voice boomed out across the hall. **"POTTER! Stop the rain, NOW!" **James' head popped up from the middle of the crowd. "Sorry Professor! It's a four hour spell! We can't reverse it!" McGonagall's face went purple, and not from the rain. **"POTTER, BLACK, EVANS AND LUPIN, I'LL SEE YOU IN MY OFFICE AFTERWARDS! EVANS! CATCH THOSE...CREATURES, NOW!" **Lily stood up from behind her statue. "Sure thing Professor!" she dived back into the middle of the fray."Oi, Prongs, give us a hand?" James nodded and together they began to chase the small, brown, fluffy things around the crowd.

"**Students! Into the Great Hall, NOW!"** McGonagall bellowed, and all but the bravest, or most foolhardy, stayed. A handful of fourth years, two fifth years and a rather intrepid first year Hufflepuff stayed to help the hysterical Marauders round up the rest of the Nifflers while Professor McGonagall looked on in stony silence. The tiny Professor Flitwick was peering out from a corridor, just far enough away to avoid being stained purple, and giggling slightly behind his beard. The rest of the professors had evidently decided (wisely) to steer clear of the Entrance Hall.

Eventually all of the Nifflers, save for Sniffy, were safely back in their cage, and McGonagall ordered the fifth years to take them back to Professor Kettleburn. The gold vanished with a flick of Lily's wand and the few remaining (purple) students hurried back into the Great Hall after a glare from McGonagall.

Her voice was quiet now as she spoke. "Potter. Black. Evans. Lupin. My office. Now." sniggering to themselves the four of them made their way to her office and waited there for her to calm down the students in the Great Hall.

"Um, Sirius," Lily suddenly noticed the once-brown-but-now-vivid-purple furry head poking out from the neck of Sirius' robes. "Why is there a Niffler in your robes?" Sirius blushed slightly. "It's Sniffy! She likes my hair. She didn't want to go back to Kettleburn... can I keep her?" Lily snorted with laughter. "You seriously want to keep a Niffler? You can't keep it in the dorm, it's not fair on it." Sirius looked offended. "It's a her. She's a her. Not an it. And she won't mind, I'll take her for walks!" Remus let out a long-suffering sigh and James and Lily erupted into fresh laughter. Sirius looked even more miffed, and turned his back on them just as McGonagall walked in. Sitting at her desk she glared at them. She had somehow avoided being stained purple. "EVANS! POTTER! This is _not_ a laughing matter. It is the _first day back. _Surely you could have contained yourselves for a little longer? As it is you have terrorised the first years, stained the entire student body and several of the staff purple, along with a batch of Nifflers. You have stolen aforementioned Nifflers and the key to their cage, gave Peeves another chance to get out of hand, set of fireworks, _fireworks_, in the Entrance Hall, flown brooms _indoors_ and now you tell me that the rain will not stop for four hours! What about the ghosts? They are now unable to cross the Entrance Hall, and indeed no one else is either for fear of being dyed purple! Mr Black, Miss Evans and Mr Potter, I had expected no less from you, but Mr Lupin! You are a Prefect, you must show some responsibility! I am extremely disappointed with you all. Fifteen points from Gryffindor, and detention on Friday. _Separate_ detentions. And is there a way to reverse to dye stains, or do we simply need to wash it out?"

"It's washable. It can be removed with just water." Lily answered,

"Thank you. That is all but I expect better behaviour from all of you in the future." they stood up to leave. "Oh, and Mr Black?" Sirius looked around. "Please return that Niffler to the cage. Thank you. Goodnight," Sirius pouted, but left.

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_**Again I apologies for the long wait, and I hope I can get the next chapter up super speedily to make it up :)**_


	11. Chapter 10: Of Rumours, Detention and

**Chapter 10: Of Rumours, Detention, Death, and Singed Eyebrows**

"I heard they got suspended!"

"But they're still here, you twit!"

"Oh..."

"I thought it was detentions for the rest of term!"

"Nah, they've done something like this the first day back for as long as they've been here, even McGonagall's not _that_ harsh!"

"I can't believe they were forced to apologise in front of everyone!"

"They weren't! They did it by themselves, they're the Marauders! _No one_ makes them do _anything_!"

"Dumbledore can!"

"But he doesn't!"

James nudged Lily as they wandered down to breakfast. "By dinner we'll be the heroes of the school!" Lily sniggered. "You mean we're not already?"

"Fair point. But those firsties blow everything waaayy out of proportion. Next thing we know we'll have fought three dragons apiece, eaten a giant for breakfast and duelled Dumbledore!"

"I think you might be exaggerating a _teensy_ bit Prongs," muttered Remus, whom James ignored.

They wandered into the packed Great Hall and sat down at their spot, with Frank Longbottom and Alice Rivers on Remus' left, Mattie and James next to Lily and Sirius and Maya opposite them.

"Morning," mumbled Frank through a mouthful of toast. He swallowed. "Post's here." the owls swooped down in their hundreds, and several copies of the Daily Prophet thunked down around them. Remus opened his while everyone else dug into their breakfast. He sighed audibly. "What's up?" asked Frank, having swallowed his toast. "Another attack. In some part of Muggle Cornwall. Thirteen dead, twenty three missing, thirty two injured. All Muggles. Hundreds more had to be Obliviated." no one spoke for a minute until a pitiful wail echoed through the fall and a tiny little first year leapt up from the other end of the table and sprinted out of the hall, black envelope clutched tightly in her fist. Several other first years got up and half-heartedly jogged after her and several older students hung around the doors looking helplessly into the Entrance Hall. Lily stood up. "Back in a minute."

"There's not much you can do!" called Sirius after her, but she was gone. He sighed, a strange, steely look in his grey eyes. Remus put a hand comfortingly on his shoulder but he shrugged it off irritably and stabbed a sausage with his fork.

Lily raced after the disappearing first year, gathering a few strange looks from the collection of dithering students by the door, and sprinted out onto the misty grounds. She scanned the damp grass, spotted a figure running through the mist towards the lake, and sped up, drizzle dampening her hair.

The figure plopped down by the lake with its head in its hands, and even through the fog she could see the the thin shoulders shaking with grief, and her heart gave a pang of sorrow for this thin, fragile figure she'd never even had a conversation with.

She plunked herself down next to the child and said nothing for a few moments until the tiny tiny tiny (how can first years be that tiny?) kid heaved a massive sob and Lily, never having been the comforting type, wrapped her arms around the child who sobbed and wept and tore herself apart into her shoulder, and she awkwardly patted the thin heaving back, and smoothed the matted hair, and tried to take some of the pain away. Rocking back and forth, feeling utterly helpless as one, far too young to experience such heartbreak, cried herself out. When you're that young your parents are your roof and your ground and your sky, and having them taken away from you is the cruellest thing anyone could ever do to anyone.

When at last the wrenching sobs gave way to silent tears, and the tears to sniffs, and eventually the kid was silent, but kept her face pressed into Lily's shoulder. A sound from behind caused Lily to twist awkwardly without disturbing the child, and she spotted James standing a little way behind, toast clutched in his hand, looking helpless. She gave him a strained kind of grimace, and he nodded.

The tear-stained face lifted from her shoulder, and a pair of chocolate brown eyes gazed up at Lily with an look of such intense pain and despair that she didn't know what to do or say to make it better. "Who, who was it?" she asked quietly, and immediately cursed herself for the tactlessness, but the distraught child only sniffed and pressed the damp black parchment into Lily's hand. It was her parents, like she had suspected. Killed by Death Eaters. They were Muggles.

Lily clutched to child a little tighter. "What's your name?" she asked. There was another sniffle. "Clara. Clara Mischi. You're Lily Evans, aren't you?" Lily nodded. "Yes. How did you know?"

the girl snorted through her tears. "_Everyone_ knows who you are. Plus my brother's obsessed with you guys." Lily smiled. "Who's your brother?"

"His name is Phil. He's in third year."

"Why wasn't he at breakfast with you?" Lily asked, wondering why there was only one distraught child sobbing by the lake rather than two.

"He's in the Hospital Wing. He fell off his broom." the girl sighed. "Are they really gone Lily?"

"Yes." murmured Lily sadly. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It wasn't your fault." there was silence for a few moments while Clara attempted to bite back the tears rising again. "Does dying hurt, Lily? Would they have hurt when they died?"

she didn't know how to answer. "I don't think so. Avada Kedavra is meant to be painless, and quick. I don't think they'll have died in pain."

"I'm glad." whispered Clara as she buried her face in Lily's shoulder again. "It doesn't seem right that they're dead. It hurts that I'll never see them again." Lily rubbed the little girl's back. "It'll get easier. You've got your brother, and you can always come and see me, okay?" Clara nodded. "I know. And there's no point in being sad for ever. They wouldn't have wanted that. I'm sad that their dead, of course I am, I'm more than sad. But as long as I don't forget them, I don't see why I shouldn't still be happy." Lily smiled sadly. She was so wise for an eleven-year-old. Too wise. "They wouldn't have wanted you to be sad. They want you to be happy." Clara nodded. "I know." Lily wrapped her arms around her again. "Lily?" she said suddenly. "Mhm?"

"Do you believe in heaven?" Lily almost laughed. "I don't think so. I don't like to think that all the dead people in the world are watching me. They'd judge me, and I'm not ready to be judged yet. When I'm dead, I want to be dead. I don't want to have to wander around heaven looking pretty, and smiling all the time." Clara nodded. "Me too. When my Grandpa died, Mum said he'd gone to heaven. She doesn't believe in heaven though, she was just trying to make me feel better by lying to me. But it didn't make me feel better. I wanted her to tell me the truth."

Remus came jogging up to James behind them, but Lily didn't turn around. He muttered something to James who moved forwards and murmured in Lily's ear. She nodded. "Clara?" she said. The girl nodded. "Phil is asking for you. Do you want to go and see him?" Clara nodded again. Lily stood up, and took her hand. "Come on then." they walked up slowly towards the castle, James and Remus following behind.

Having reached the Hospital Wing Clara let go of Lily's hand and threw herself at the taller, older, more masculine version of herself sitting in a bed with a black letter clutched in his hand and a strange expression on his face, as if he couldn't quite comprehend what had happened. Dazed, he wrapped his arms around his sobbing sister and buried his large brown eyes in her mop of hair. Murmuring words of comfort through his own tears he hugged her closer and they sat together on the bed, two broken hearts, and wept.

"I'll fucking kill those bastards! Bloody imbeciles! That's two lives ruined, two more kids without family! I'll tear those arseholes limb from fucking dirty limb with my bare hands! Killing Muggles for fun! Hundreds of people dead, and just for sport!" Lily was pale with rage, storming backwards and forwards on the damp earth, every now and then thumping her fist into her hand. The other three Marauders sat a little way off, faces tense, letting her anger burn itself out. When she was in one of her rages, no one was safe, not even her 'brothers'.

After her voice was hoarse from shrieking profanities at the heavens, and the jets of flame from her wand had ignited the third tree she threw herself down next to James and moodily kicked at a root. Remus doused the burning tree with a flick of his wand. "_Bastards_." she growled.

For a few moments all was silent except for Lily's ragged breathing and the faint hiss of water evaporating off the smouldering wood. "Sorry guys." she muttered after a while. "S'okay." murmured James. "Everyone gets pissed off." she smiled wanly. "More than pissed off. They just make me so fucking _angry_. Thinking they can just swan around, the odd Avada Kedavra here, a Crucio there, destroy a couple of families, murder some children, torture a baby. It's like giving out sweeties! Only poisoned ones. Otherwise they'd be nice." Sirius snorted. "Great analogy Red. Just great." she thumped him.

It was a Saturday, and they were sitting in the Marauder Place (a clearing deep in the Forbidden Forest that they had claimed), having left the distraught Clara in the hands of her just-as-distraught brother, under Madame Pomfrey's watchful eye. They had their detention at four o' clock that afternoon, leaving them three hours left of freedom so they had begged a picnic basket off the house elves and gone to sit (in the rain) in their special place. Well, the others had. As soon as Lily had safely delivered Clara she shot off into the woods and, having collected the hamper, the other Marauders had found her deep in the woods yelling expletives to the sky. Wisely, they left her to cool off while eating some sandwiches. Now they were huddled around the fire with rain drizzling through the trees and some rather soggy sandwiches. "You know, instead of sitting here in the rain we could always rebuild our shelter." suggested Remus after taking a bite of a ham and cucumber sandwich with added rain.

Every year the Marauders built themselves a shelter in their place, for the days it was just too cold or too rainy to sit outside, and at the end of every summer term they dismantled it, having left it intact in their first summer and arriving back to find a rather angry bear ripping it apart. However in all the fuss this year they had forgotten to rebuild it, and Sirius immediately sprang up. "Great idea Moony! Come on guys!" they stood up. By now they had worked out a method for the best and most secure shelter that would withstand most elements, but they never used magic on it. Part of the fun was seeing how well you could not be dependent on magic. The only magic they used was a final charm to stop the plants used rotting.

James and Sirius immediately left the clearing, scouting around for some decent sized logs to use as the base while Remus gathered armfuls of leaf mould, moss and ferny plants. Lily searched the area for thinner, more flexible twigs, and within half an hour everything was assembled in the clearing. Then the logs were propped between two suitable trees and the sticks and twigs were woven and tied around them, creating a sort of rough dome shape with the large logs as supports. After that they covered the whole thing with a layer of moss for waterproofing, and for the final layer they wove in the ferns and leafy plants. Then the remainder of the plants were shaken off and piled inside, then covered with a blanket, for a comfortable floor. Finally they cast the charm to keep the leaves green and strong before standing back to admire their handiwork. The end result was a vibrantly green, almost igloo-shaped hut just high enough to stand up if you bent over slightly. There was a hole for a door that was high enough for them at crouch level, and had a curtain of leafs covering it to keep out the rain. All in all it was perfect for them.

They crawled inside out of the rain which had changed from a heavy drizzle to a downpour, and checked for leaks. The one they found was quickly patched up with moss, and Remus conjured big squashy cushions and more blankets, for it was not warm. The fire in the jar they placed in the middle, and it lit the dark hut with a warm, flickering light. Then they fell on the hamper, and after everyone had eaten more than their fill Lily glanced at her pocket-watch. "Quarter to three." she announced. "Anyone for a game of Gobstones?" she conjured a set, and they settled down for several noisy games of it before deciding it was time to leave (at half past three) if they wanted to stop off at Gryffindor Tower to get changed into dry clothes.

They arrived at McGonagall's office with seconds to spare and she welcomed them with a disapproving stare at their damp hair and flushed features.

"Right, Mr Black, you will be helping Mr Filch mop up the water that Moaning Myrtle flooded the second floor with," Sirius groaned. McGonagall sent him a warning glare. "Mr Lupin, you will be cleaning the Owlery, with _no_ magic," Remus' groan was louder than Sirius' who sent him a mocking glance that said _ha ha you have to scrape up owl plop_. McGonagall's glare was sharper this time. "Mr Potter, you'll be helping Professor Sprout in the greenhouses, she needs a hand potting the Snargle-Shrubs, and Miss Evans..." here she looked severely over her glasses at Lily, "You, Miss Evans, will be helping Professor Slughorn label Potions ingredients. Any questions?"

"Why do I have to scrape up owl poo?" moaned Remus under his breath, but she chose to ignore him. "Right, if that's clear, then off you go. I will expect you to report back here at six o' clock precisely, having completed your detentions." they scarpered.

The next two hours passed incredibly slowly. They were definitely not the worst detentions they had ever had in all their six years, but they weren't the best either. Eventually, after two hours of Slughorn recounting all the potions Lily had brewed to perfection over the years, and all the detentions she and the other Marauders had ever done with him, endless cups of weak tea and the mind-numbingly dull job of sticking pre-written labels on thousands of jars, Lily said goodbye to a comfortably reclining Slughorn, and traipsed back up the stairs to McGonagall's office where she met a Remus who smelt rather of owl poop, James with scratches all up his arms and a rather damp Sirius, and she decided that she probably got the best of the four jobs. McGonagall dismissed them and they wandered back up to Gryffindor Tower, complaining bitterly about the harshness of their punishments. Remus immediately disappeared for a shower and Sirius changed into some dry clothes while Lily flicked her wand over James' scrapes and boasted about the cushyness of her detention. Once Sirius and Remus had emerged, clean and dry and thankfully no longer smelling of toilet water and owl poo, Lily bounced to her feet. "Dinner!" she announced, and Sirius gave a cry of joy. "Food!" he yelled, and he stampeded _(I'm not sure how one person can stampede on their own, but he sure managed it) _out of the common room and down the corridor with the others in hot pursuit.

Dinner was much appreciated, and although Lily scanned the entire table for any sign of Clara or Phil she didn't spot either of them, guessing that they were still in the Hospital Wing being looked after by Madame Pomfrey. After they had eaten fit to burst the four of them left the table slowly and, on Lily's insistence, took a detour via the Hospital Wing to check on Clara and Phil, for whom she felt rather responsible. They were there, fast asleep in white beds, looking pale and sad even in sleep. After being assured by the nurse that they were fine, the four of them returned to the common room and Sirius pulled out a pack of Exploding Snap. "Who's for a game?" he cried, and they all readily agreed.

After a few singed eyebrows and a lock of Sirius' precious hair going up in flames the other admitted defeat, leaving Lily to stand on the table and open her mouth to declaim her victory speech. However she got no further than, "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears. I, Lily Evans-" before three cushions hit her in the face. She glared at the boys and threw them back, one each. There ensued a noisy and violent cushion fight that ended with most of the population of the common room getting involved and a couple of tiny first years hiding under the table. When they were quite exhausted the Marauders collapsed back in their chairs and Sirius proceeded to bemoan the state of his hair until Lily changed it to bright purple, which shut him up. He got up and flounced, yes flounced, up the staircase. The effect however was ruined by the fact that it was the girls' stairs he flounced up and he ended up sliding down on his bum and landing in a heap on the common room floor. When the other Marauders burst into laughter he stood up, glared, dusted himself off and flounced up the boys' stairs, scowling. The Marauders continued to laugh for some time, until Lily stretched and announced her intention of going to bed. The boys nodded and went too, still chuckling to themselves about Sirius. "Did you see his face when Lily turned his hair purple?" Remus sniggered as they opened the door to their dorm. "Oi! I heard that!" came the cry from behind the hangings. Remus and James looked at each other and burst into fresh laughter.

Lily climbed the stairs to the dormitory. None of her room-mates were there except Mattie, her shape just visible under the scarlet covers. She was fast asleep. Lily tiptoed through her nightly routine and soon was fast asleep in bed, worn out with the day's activities.


	12. Chapter 11: A Refreshing Dip

**_Two updates in a week! "Who are you and what have you done with Fran?" I hear you cry. :) well, enjoy!

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**Chapter 11: A refreshing dip**

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"Sirius Orion Black, when I find you death will be a merciful escape from the hideous pain I am going to inflict on you!" the shout echoed down the girls' staircase and Remus and James who were getting out of 'sleep mode' and into 'Sunday mode' in the common room looked at each other and grinned. Footsteps were heard running down the stairs and Lily appeared, clad in only an oversized T-shirt and emerald green short-shorts. A lot of stares came her way as she made her way over to the hysterical boys, placed her hands on her hips and glared. Unfortunately this only made the boys laugh harder, and well they might. A lot of people were smothering chortles at the colour of Lily's hair which was now a vivid emerald colour and her eyes which had gone a fiery orange, the exact shade her hair used to be. She appeared to have just got out of the shower; her green curls were dripping down her back and there was a fresh smell about her that caused James to inhale as deeply as he could without drawing attention to himself. "Where is Black?" she demanded. Remus gained control of himself enough to point shakily at the portrait hole before dissolving back into laughter. Lily turned towards it, only to have her way blocked by a midget with glasses. Milo Michaels, first year, was clutching a camera bigger than his head and snapped a photo before she could protest. Sniggering he scurried back to his gang of first year friends who squealed over the photo. Lily stormed towards the portrait hole and exited the common room. James nudged Remus. "C'mon, watching Lily hex Padfoot to Timbuktu and back will be quality entertainment!" and together they followed Lily as she cast a tracker spell and set off in pursuit of Sirius.

In hardly any time she had reached the main doors and sped off through the storm outside, her eyes trained on the tiny purple speck that was moving towards the lake. She put on a burst of speed and then stopped, thinking as the rain soaked her T-shirt. Suddenly she flicked her wand, muttered, "Accio," and waited with hand outstretched as her Silver Arrow came zooming through the storm. Mounting her precious broomstick she kicked off from the ground and flew low and fast towards Sirius, shrieking threats. James skidded to a halt as he watched her go before he flicked his own wand and watched as his trusty Lightening Shock navigated through the driving rain and mounted it. For a minute he debated letting Remus on too, but like the good friend he was he flew away a while before relenting and graciously allowing him to ride pillion. They shot after Lily, although having two passengers slowed down the five star broom. By this time Lily was close enough to Sirius to be able to start shooting hex after hex at him, most of which he dodged, bar two, the Tickling curse and a jelly legs jinx, both of which hit him square in the ribs. He collapsed on the sodden grass, wheezing and giggling, and Lily zoomed at him, grabbed him by the collar of his robes and flew out until she was a good 12 feet above the middle of the storm-tossed lake. It was nearly December and the wind was extremely strong and gusty, the lake was freezing and the rain was so hard it nearly hurt when it hit you. "Yield!" demanded the red-turned-green- head. Sirius dangled above the grey surface of the lake, thrashing and giggling until Lily lifted the tickling curse. Then he gasped out, "Never!"

"Then give me one good reason why I shouldn't drop you." Lily growled.

"BecauseI'mSoAmazinglyHandsomeAndCharming?" Sirius babbled, desperate.

To be fair, Lily had not intended to drop him. It was merely a method of revenge, making him sweat a little before he turned her hair back. But at the same moment that Sirius attempted to unseat Lily with the firm intention that if he was going in, so was she, a particularly strong gust of wind hit causing Lily, whose hands were full of Sirius meaning she was not in full control of her broom, to be caught off balance. She cartwheeled in the air, struggling madly to stay on her rain-slickened broom and Sirius' robes chose that moment to rip. He fell, shrieking madly, into the lake, and disappeared with barely a splash. Lily managed to stay on her Silver Arrow, despite the wind threatening to send her spinning into the Whomping Willow, and straightened up her broom as she scanned the dark waters for the tell-tale purple. James and Remus had now joined her and they waited, fully expecting Sirius to appear any minute, bemoaning the state of his precious hair, but no Sirius appeared. Suddenly Lily went pale and cried, "the jinx! He won't be able to swim!" Before James or Remus could stop her Lily had dived head first into the icy waters, and vanished without a trace. James gave a strangled yell and would have jumped after her had Remus not grabbed both him and Lily's broom which was about to be blown away, and yelled, "I can't control this thing on my own! I can barely fly at the best of times, and in this weather we need the extra weight!" James nodded tersely but still peered anxiously at the lake. Quite a crowd had gathered by now, and a lot of students were pointing and squealing. Professor McGonagall was there too. She looked livid.

The freezing waters closed over Lily's head as she dived down, searching for the flash of purple that would tell her where Sirius was. She glanced all around her but could see nothing but the dark, oppressive water and a lot of weed. She needed to breathe and swam upwards, her head breaking the storm tossed surface. She gulped air and gave the thumbs up to James and Remus who were hovering above looking worried. She filled her lungs and duck-dived, kicking frantically to stop herself from going numb with cold. Swimming down she spotted Sirius, desperately trying to struggle against the jinx, but nearly out of air. She waved her wand and thought the counter-jinx, and Sirius kicked out as the jinx lifted. She swam towards him and grabbed his arm, trying to drag him upwards as he was too cold and breathless to be able to swim well. They made slow progress towards the light and Lily was tiring rapidly when she felt something grab her leg. She kicked, trying to dislodge whatever it was. Her foot connected and she twisted to watch a dazed Grindylow floating away from her. However more of the little creatures were gathering and Lily was nervous. She tried to shoot sparks at them but the spell did not work, and the creatures advanced, grabbing hold of their legs and arms and trying to drag them back down. Sirius was losing consciousness from lack of air and Lily was starting to feel light-headed.

James was frantic, unable to see either of his best friends, and suddenly he made up his mind. Pointing the stick back to the shore he yelled to Remus, "take it and Lily"s back to land!" and he ripped off his hoodie before jumping into the lake. Searching for Sirius and Lily he dived down until he spotted the green and purple of their hair, and took in their Grindylow problem. They were both numb with cold, and added with the dead weight of the unconscious Sirius, Lily was exhausted. James swam towards them, shooting hot water and hexes at the Grindylows. Lily followed suit and between them they managed to drive off the malicious creatures. Grabbing Sirius' other arm, James started to swim to the surface, and Lily gathered the last of her strength and swam upwards with all her might. Finally they broke the surface to the cheers of the crowd, and they wearily paddled ashore. McGonagall looked furious, but also slightly relieved that they were safe as they dragged Sirius onto the grass and she flicked her wand, making Sirius cough madly and sit up. He shook his head like a dog and drops of water sprayed everyone within a three metre radius. "Sorry Minnie!" he chirped. McGonagall frowned but did not reprimand him as she conjured blankets which James and Lily wrapped themselves in, shivering. "That was extremely stupid and reckless behaviour." She looked as if she thoroughly disapproved. "I'm sure the headmaster will want to see you in his study later, but first, if Mr Longbottom and Miss Pinner," motioning to Frank and Alice, "would be so kind as to escort you to the Hospital Wing, I'm sure Madame Pomfrey will be able to fix you up. Thank you."

The six of them traipsed up to the castle, Remus clutching the two broomsticks. None of them said anything, they were far too cold and wet, needing all their energy to battle through the storm up to the castle. Alice and Frank refrained from asking questions, realising they were far too cold and tired. They finally arrived at the big wooden doors of the Hospital Wing, and Alice and Frank left, hand in hand. Madame Pomfrey took one look at them and sighed loudly. She threw them all thick purple pyjamas and assigned them each a bed, before bustling off to make cocoa, muttering stuff about what students get up to these days. The Marauders changed into their pyjamas behind the hangings and then collapsed in their nice, warm beds. They just lay there for a moment, before Sirius broke the silence. "Thanks mate." He mumbled, turning his head slightly towards Lily's bed. Lily grinned tiredly. "Any time mate." She replied. "And sorry about dropping you in Pads."

"No problem Lils. Forgiven." They both grinned. "Oi!" moaned James. "Is no one going to thank me for diving into the freezing lake, bravely risking all to save my ungrateful comrades?" He slumped back on his pillows, a pitiful look on his handsome face. "Awww never mind Prongsie me old man, we all appreciate you so very, very much." James wiped the sulk off his face and beamed. "Thanks Sirius!" He lay back with a contented look on his face, until three pillows hit him in the face. "Ah!" James yelped. "What was that for?" Remus grinned at the death glares the others were sending James. "For being such a big-headed prat?" he hazarded a guess. "Right first time!" Lily cried. A few moments later though she and Sirius said in unison, "But thanks mate."

After Madame Pomfrey had force-fed them hot chocolate by the gallon, and given them each a thorough check over they had got their energy back, so, after having blocks of chocolate stuffed into their hands by the matron they put on their now dry clothes and left the Hospital Wing. Their contentment was short lived though because McGonagall was lying in wait for them and ambushed them in the corridor. "Just the people I was looking for. Glad to see you are all looking much warmer and drier." McGonagall did not look pleased. "The headmaster wishes to see you in his office at four-thirty this evening." She gave a sniff as though she disapproved of delaying their punishment, and the Marauders grinned and waved goodbye to 'Minnie' as they headed back to Gryffindor Tower. They used as many of the secret passageways as they could to avoid the thousands of students now pouring down to the Great Hall for lunch. They did not want to be questioned about the happenings of earlier that day just yet, much as they would enjoy telling their tale after Dumbledore had spoken to them.

Lily parted from the boys at the foot of the girls' staircase, bouncing up the stairs to shower and change. After a long, warm shower and hair wash she exited the bathroom smelling of shampoo, her hair and eyes now back to their original colour due to Madame Pomfrey. She grabbed some clothes out of her draw, a Led Zeppelin t-shirt, navy hoodie with the slogan, "Away with the fairies" blazed on it in fluorescent green graffiti, black skinny jeans and fluorescent stripy socks. Throwing them on she finished the outfit with a green and black indie scarf and battered red Converse All Star that she grabbed by the laces instead of wearing. She flicked her wand to dry her hair so it fell into its natural curls and stuck it into her jeans pocket. As an afterthought she grabbed her guitar from by her bed, as it was not raining any more and she had a fancy for some music in the open air. They still had three hours until their appointment with the Head, time for some fun.

Slinging her guitar on her back and swinging her shoes from one hand she jumped down the stairs to where the boys were waiting for her. The fire in her eyes lit up her face as it danced, her red gold curls were already losing their uniform shape left from the drying spell and there was huge, happy grin on her freckled face. Their grins matched her own as she landed next to them, humming under her breath. "Yay!" cried the excitable Sirius. "Lily has her guitar! Muggle music! Yay!" Remus kicked him. He shut up. The four friends exited the common room and made their way outside, chatting amiably about the morning's events and successfully avoiding most of the attempts of first and second years to ambush them. Before they left the castle Lily called them to a halt as she hopped madly, trying without success to put on her shoes. She wobbled on one foot and crashed into James, who grabbed her around the waist to steady her. She rested her arm around his shoulders as she did up one shoe and they switched sides so she could do the other. Finally she had both feet clad in red and they pushed open the main doors to be dazzled by the sunlight reflecting off all the raindrops, making everything sparkle and wink, coating the world in jewels. Lily grinned, and the sun caught her hair, making it shine with burnished gold. James loved her hair, so red in the dark but with a hidden sheen of gold that only the sun brought out. There were so many tints in it, from palest yellow to ruby red, it was like a fire. Exactly like a fire... he mused.

He was startled out of his thoughts by the realisation that the 'fire' was no longer beside him but being chased by Sirius across the sodden grass, guitar bouncing on her back. He took off after her, Remus somewhere in between him and Sirius, feet sliding on the wet grass. He slowly gained on Sirius and suddenly leapt on his back, tackling him to the ground. Sirius went down, panting and James sat on his chest. He waved his wand, creating a chalky green smudge at the tip and drew a big green smile on Sirius' cheek. Then he was up and running, overtaking Lily as he tried desperately to escape the wrath that would emanate from Sirius for defiling his 'beauty'. He reached the edge of the Forbidden Forest, gave a quick scan for people, saw the coast was clear and dived between the trees, closely followed by Lily, Remus and an irate Sirius who had succeeded in smudging the chalk into a smear in his attempts to rid himself of the marring of his features. As soon as the Marauders were far enough from the edge of the Forest not to be spotted by anyone they transformed into their animal forms, leaving Remus as the lone human. He carried Lily's guitar as the abnormally large, reddish gold wolf could not carry a guitar. They set off at a steady lope, apart from James and Sirius who were currently chasing each other around the forest.

Some time after Lily and Remus arrived at the 'Marauders' Place', so called by Sirius, and seated themselves around the magic fire they kept there in a jam-jar, the stag and dog appeared from the trees, both sporting multicoloured coats. They morphed back to human form and sat next to the grinning pair. Both had splotches of colour in their hair and on their faces, but appeared not to care. "Muggle Music Moment!" squealed Sirius. He created names like that for everything and everyone. You get used to it. Lily settled her guitar across her knees, flicked her wand to tune it and grabbed her pick. The Marauders waited expectantly- they all loved it when Lily played her Muggle music- and they were not disappointed. She gave them a tuneful rendition of _Yellow_ by Coldplay, followed by several other songs.

Just as the last few notes died away, Remus glanced at his watch. "ARGH!" he yelled, "We only have 10 minutes! We need to be at Dumbledore's office at 4:30! RUN!" they scrambled to their feet, Remus grabbed Lily's precious electro-acoustic guitar and the three of them transformed, tearing through the trees, Remus easily keeping up using one of the werewolf perks, super-speedy running. They rocketed through the undergrowth, Lily the wolf the fastest in the lead with James a close second with Sirius and Remus on his heels. They reached the edge of the forest in minutes and changed back to human form, peeking out from between the trees to check the coast was clear, which it was and the four of them strolled nonchalantly out of the forest before streaking across the grounds and into the castle, gasping for breath. Lily grabbed her guitar off Remus and slung it on her back. "I don't have time to take this back to the dorm, I'll just bring it." They set off, weaving through the corridors, diving through short-cuts and dodging fan clubs and first-years. They slammed to a halt in front of the stone gargoyles and Remus panted "Sugar quill!" the gargoyles looked at them blankly. "Pumpkin pasty?" tried Sirius. No effect. "Liquorice wand?" this from Lily. The gargoyles rolled their stone eyes. "Chocolate?" James was desperate. The gargoyle gave something akin to a sigh and shunted out of the way. "Chocolate?" yelped Sirius, incredulous. "Out of all the stupid- OI! Wait for me!" the four of them stopped outside the Head's front door, panting. It was exactly thirty-one minutes past four. The oak door opened and the four of them piled in.

Dumbledore was sitting serenely behind his desk and raised one silver eyebrow at the multi-coloured chalk in Sirius' and James' hair, the guitar on Lily's back and the considerable amount of mud and grass stains over all of them. He smiled slightly and motioned them to sit, which they did, Lily propping the guitar against her seat. He pressed his hands together and looked at them over the top of his half-moon spectacles, piercing blue eyes winking happily at them. "So, I expect you all know why you're here? Yes, I though so. Well, about that little incident, I would like you to explain to me exactly what happened. I have been informed of the basics by Minerva but I would like to hear the full story from yourselves. Miss Evans, if you would be so kind?" Lily looked startled but obliged, telling Dumbledore exactly what had happened, from the green hair to the Grindylows. She skimmed over the bit where she leapt into the lake to save Sirius, explained in detail James' rescue and Remus' cool head and finished up with McGonagall reviving Sirius. The Marauders listened in silence but when Lily attempted to pass it off as all her fault they leapt in. "No Professor, it wasn't like that! I turned Lily's hair green and her eyes red!"

"And we followed Lily and didn't try to stop her hexing Sirius!"

"And Lily leapt straight in to save Sirius, she didn't care about herself!"

"Yeah and James would have gone to save them straight away but I stopped him!"

"And if Remus hadn't kept calm and stopped me jumping after Lily then Lily's broom would be smushed and Remus would have lost control of mine!"

Dumbledore listened to them in silence, until they stopped yelling and sat down again, satisfied that they had told it like it is, and that they all shared the blame. Dumbledore nodded calmly. "So, it seems that you all were exceptionally brave and put the safety of your companions before that of yourselves. That is the true spirit if Gryffindor. I am sure I am prepared to overlook any misdemeanours in the light of your loyalty. However-" here Dumbledore's blue eyes twinkled at them, "-I am sure Minerva will be much happier if I appear to have lectured you so you might exit my rooms looking suitably cowed and ashamed of yourselves." The Marauders grinned, thanked and in the case of Sirius saluted their Head and left the office, looking suitably cowed and ashamed of themselves.

After walking past McGonagall, and showing her their repentedness, the Marauders pootled off back to Gryffindor Tower to regale the first years with tales of their adventures. Much later that night Lily hugged the boys goodnight- all the Marauders loved hugs, including her- and headed off to bed. Upon entering the dorm she was leapt on by none other than Mattie who tackled her to the ground, sat on her chest and held her at wand point. On seeing that it was Lily however she rolled off her and gave her a hand up. "Sorry Lils, just Tom has been coming up here all day and I swore I'd hex him next time he walked in." Tom was a third year who had a crush on Mattie. He annoyed her, seeing as they were in sixth year. He was obsessed with the Marauders and was like a mini Sirius, a womaniser and charming idiot. Lily grinned and forgave her. Tom was fun to tease her about. But there was one thing she didn't understand. "How the hell did Tom get up the stairs? We can get up the boys' ones but no boys can get up ours, apart from the Marauders cos I told them how..."

"Oh, apparently Tom and his group of Mini Marauders figured it out, they are obsessed with you guys." this came from Maya who was curled up on her bed in her pyjamas, reading a book. Lily sighed. "As if we didn't have our hands full looking after these boys, now we have even more." muttered Mattie. Lily snorted. "What can I say? We're magnets."

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_**Reviews are more than welcome :)**_


	13. Discontinuation notice

To all readers, assuming I have any, I'm sorry, but I'm discontinuing. I don't have the same drive to finish this story, I dislike my characterisations and the plot isn't going anywhere. If you really want me to continue, let me know. Depending on the response I get I might think about revamping/continuing it, but no promises there.

Sorry, I enjoyed it while it lasted and I hope you did to. Thank you to my few reviewers.


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